Next On
by Nuclear Eggs
Summary: A thieving orphan, Luka never thought she would be anyone particularly special, but when she runs into a mysterious and haughty runaway from the Crypton Tower, she gets thrown into an unexpected journey. Miku/Luka
1. Chapter 1

"Stop right there!"

Luka had no intention of doing so. With the apple she stole firmly tucked into her bag, and her hand holding onto a similarly stolen loaf of bread, she ran through the crowded streets of the town of Marlon, dodging obstacles, human, animal, or material, in her way. She took one look back over her shoulder to see an armed guard running after her, dressed in plate armor, waving a sword around, almost lopping off the head of the flower woman. Luka grimaced and quickened her pace.

"You violated the law!" the guard screamed. "Stop running!"

Luka jumped onto a few crates, climbed up a ladder to the top of a roof, and quickly pulled the ladder up, laying the slats of wood connected by string by her feet, before continuing running. She jumped, landed on another rooftop, kept running, looking behind her for any sign of the guard, and ran right into something hard, hitting her head.

"Ow...ow..." Luka stumbled back, rubbing her head with one hand. "Sorry about that, sir...?" She shot her eyes open and saw another guard standing in front of her, glowering; he had apparently gotten up through the trapdoor in the house. Luka immediately turned around, only to see the guard she was running from earlier.

Luka smiled weakly and held up her hands. "Just a little snack, guys."

"We don't listen to thieves," said the guard, who was slowly taking out a pair of handcuffs. "You're under arrest, street urchin."

Luka licked her lips and put her hands away. "Hey, well, we can talk about this, right? I mean, I'm hungry, starving, no food, no money, no parents, wh-what can I do?" She shrank under the guards' harsh gazes and gulped.

"Hold out your hands," the guard with the handcuffs ordered.

Sighing, Luka did so before sharply moving her hands up, pushing the guards away with a desperate strength, and running, jumping off the roof, landing on a cart of rugs. She leapt out of the cart and dashed into a nearby brothel, where she hastily put on a few exotic silks and blended in with the crowd of bought women, trying to look inconspicuous.

"A bit early to be getting into trouble, isn't it?" drawled the woman next to her.

Luka smiled at her. "Too hungry. I can't help it."

Gertrude looked out the window and frowned. "Well, here they come."

Luka also looked out the window and nodded. She threw off the silks, quickly thanked Gertrude, and ran up the stairs, trying the doors. All of them were occupied except for the one at the end of the hall, and Luka burst in, jumped onto the bed, and climbed out of the window, grabbing onto a clothesline and rappelling down, taking the landing on the wall of another building with her feet before climbing down and running into a nearby alley, where she cleared away a few old barrels, tapped at the stone floor with her foot, pushing a little. The stone floor slid and Luka climbed down into the whole and pulled the stone shut again.

She sighed a sigh of relief. The area she was in now was an old hideout of the various thieves, orphans, and con men of Marlon, and as of now, there was no one else inside. Luka was in a small room with a few chairs and a table. There was a stock of food in an alcove, but the key word was 'was' - there were no fruits, no bread, nothing; the stock of food had run out long ago and no one bothered to restock it, all taking the view that, well, people have to fight to survive in Marlon if they're born disadvantaged. Luka took a hearty bite of her bread, congratulating herself on a job well done.

A few hours later, Luka got out of the tiny hideout and blended into the crowd at the market, idly looking around at the wares. Here a collection of beautiful glass flowers, there bottles of all shapes and sizes. There was a stall that sold elaborate beadwork, a stall that sold jewelry, heavily guarded on all sides, a stall that sold colorful clothing that shimmered in the sun. Luka smiled and looked up at the clear blue sky. It was, she decided, a good day today. Even though she had no money to buy any of the goods on sale, she had food in her stomach, and she could at least look at the wares. After all, a homeless orphan like her had no need for elaborate jewelry or colorful clothes. All she needed was food and drink.

However, Luka thought quietly and secretly to herself, it _would _be nice to live in a house, a real house, and buy food, and wear nice clothing, and be clean and safe and free. Even Luka had a small dream, after all. Safety, security, happiness. But no. Luka shook her head, dispelling her thoughts. There was no use in thinking of these things. Better to live in the now, focusing on how to survive, rather than wasting time in frivolous dreams.

A small commotion to the right disrupted Luka's thoughts, and she looked over, quizzically. There was a girl with long teal hair, confusedly backing away from a menacing guard, an apple in her hand. Luka's lips quirked a little; a would-be thief, perhaps? She walked a little closer to see what was going on.

"I hope you're planning to pay for that," the guard said to the girl.

The girl looked bewildered. "...'Pay'?"

"Pay!" the guard roared. "Giving money in exchange for the apple! What do they teach kids nowadays?"

"What's 'money'?" the girl asked.

The guard was unamused, and he roughly grabbed the girl by her arm. "I think I'll have to take you to the-"

"D-don't touch me!" the girl yanked her arm out of the guard's grip. "You...you lowborn!"

"Lowborn?" the guard's eyebrows raised. "Look at you, acting like you're some sort of princess!" He made to grab the girl again, but Luka intervened, stepping inbetween the guard and the girl. She shot the guard her best smile, and before the guard could say anything, Luka withdrew and, putting all her strength into her arms, pushed him over. The guard lost balance and fell to the ground in a cacophony of steel, his plate armor clanging on the ground. The girl stared at him before staring at Luka, and Luka grabbed her by the wrist and ran, taking her through a maze of alleys before stopping. She looked over at the girl, who was apparently unused to running as she was red-faced and panting.

"Are you okay?" Luka asked, letting go of the girl's wrist.

The girl, to Luka's surprise, glared at her with an anger so fierce, Luka took a step back. "I didn't need your help. I could handle it fine by myself."

Luka gaped at her. "What? You were about to be arrested. I rescued you!"

"You put your dirty lowborn paws all over me!"

"What?" Luka frowned. "Hey, I rescued you. Even if I'm just a...just a...anyways, you don't need to act so ungrateful."

"Ugh..." the girl stared at her wrist before passing her hand over it, squeezing her eyes shut, and mumbling a prayer that, from what Luka could hear, spoke of cleansing. Luka's jaw almost dropped open; was she really so lowly regarded? Even the people she rescued treated her like this...Luka stared at her hand, which looked relatively clean to her, dirt and insect-free, at least, before letting it drop limply to her side. She took a few deep breaths and tried to quell the indignation inside of her.

"Well, if you treat me like this, and since you called the guard a lowborn, what are you?" Luka asked, her voice a little sarcastic. "A princess?"

The girl scoffed. "Don't compare me to your lowborn princesses, lowborn. I," and here the girl drew herself up with great and powerful dignity, "am a noble of the Crypton Tower."

Luka stared at the girl for a few seconds before bursting out in raucous laughter. "You? From the Crypton Tower? _Please_, no one from the Crypton Tower ever comes down here. They're all too high and mighty to mingle with us!"

The Crypton Tower, Luka knew, was the dwelling place of a very reclusive group of people who cast away all ties with what they called the 'sins and corruption' of the so-called 'Lower World'. It was the tallest tower in the world, so tall its apex pierced the sky, so tall it casts a large shadow over many a farmer's land. It was completed before Luka's time; ever since she could remember, the Crypton Tower stood tall and proud, its peak hidden by clouds. No one, from what Luka knew, ever left the Crypton Tower, as the people who dwell there were so fanatical, so disdainful of the Lower World, that none of its denizens ever left. (And for that matter, no one from the Lower World was admitted entrance.)

The girl flushed. "I _am _from the Crypton Tower!"

"Oh sure," Luka rolled her eyes, "and I'm the queen of Elphegort."

"I am!" the girl insisted. "Look!" She rolled up her sleeves and showed Luka her pale shoulder. Luka, chuckling a little, looked at the girl's shoulder before she saw a swirling, elaborate black tattoo imprinted on the girl's shoulder.

"Anyone can get a Crypton tattoo," Luka said, shaking her head.

"It's the real thing!" the girl said. "I'll prove it to you." The girl closed her eyes and mumbled something to herself before the tattoo shifted colors, turning a deep, glowing blood red, so deep Luka feared that the tattoo was actually filling with blood before she realized that no, the girl was casting some magic spell. The Cryptonites, Luka knew, were all well-trained in magic, believing that it would bring them closer to their gods, and their tattoos were supposed to be some kind of holder for their magic...Luka didn't know the specifics; nobody knew much about the Cryptonites, so most of what Luka heard was mere hearsay. A few seconds later, the tattoo shifted back to its normal blackness.

Luka did not know what to say. She had never thought that she would ever meet a Cryptonite before. Far more troubling was, why was a Cryptonite in the Lower World? They hated lowborns, and this girl didn't seem to be in the Lower World by choice, seeing how she recoils from the slightest touch and calls everyone 'lowborn'. It made no sense for someone so rooted in Crypton culture to run to the Lower World.

"Okay, okay," Luka raised her hands. "Why are you here, then? You obviously don't like us lowborn folk. Why did you leave the Tower?"

At this, the girl lost her bravado, and she suddenly seemed small and frightened. She looked down, opened her mouth, and closed it. Luka noticed how thin she was, how dark the eyebags under her eyes were. Whoever she was, she wasn't faring very well in the world. Feeling a little sympathy again, Luka produced the apple she stole earlier from her pack and gave it to the girl, who hungrily snatched it and wolfed it down. Luka waited until she was finished licking the juice from her lips before speaking again.

"So what are you going to do?" Luka asked, evenly.

The girl stared at her before looking away. "None of your business, lowborn. I'll think of something by myself. I don't need your lowborn help. I didn't _ask _for your lowborn help. I can...I can help myself!"

"Whoa there," said Luka, frowning. "I just gave you food, and I saved you from the guards. Would it kill you to show a little gratitude?"

"I don't thank people like you!" the girl backed away. "You should feel honored that your sin-ridden presence is graced by me."

"Hey!" Luka was now fully angry, and she glared at the girl. "Fine. Suit yourself. If you're so unhappy here, then just go back to the Crypton Tower! Weirdo."

The girl glared back at her before turning around and stomping away into the crowd. Luka stuck her tongue out at her retreating back, immaturely, before sighing and turning around, closing her eyes.

"I help someone and this is what I get," she said to herself, and she headed down the alley to her home - an abandoned house made of wood, small and rotting on the outskirts of the city, about to fall apart, but it was Luka's, and she was comfortable in it. She gently pushed open the door, closing it behind her. It was a single roomed shack, consisting of a bedroll and a table and a chair. Luka flopped down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, her eyes running over the worn, gray logs, before sighing, deciding to forget all about that strange, rude Crypton girl, and slowly falling asleep.

-o-o-o-

Miku roamed the streets of the town, frowning in disgust at everything around her. The people all smelled so...so..._filthy_! She could practically see the sin and corruption within them. She had been taught that the people of the Lower World were little more than animals, giving into their base desires, and from Miku could see so far, what she had been taught was correct. Why, just a few hours ago, some dirty, smelly street rat manhandled her as though she was some kind of stupid lowborn! Even going so far as to mock her by giving her an apple. Miku's frown deepened. If only she could go back to the tower, but...

Miku's mind spasmed at the memory and she pushed it away. She looked up at the sky; the sun was slowly setting. Miku would have to find a place to stay soon. At the Tower, nobles such as Miku had the right to sleep in anyone's quarters as they so wished, and so Miku marched into a likely house, a nice and big place, walls of sturdy gray stone, a few windows here and there. The interior of the house was warm and comfortable; there was a fireplace, unlit, and a few books on a few bookshelves (Lowborn people read?), and most important of all, food on a small wooden table. There were small earthenware bowls containing fruits of all kinds, and Miku greedily grabbed some of the berries and stuffed them into her mouth, closing her eyes in bliss as she tasted the sweet juices of the berries, felt them run down her throat. She then munched on the loaf of bread that sat on the very same table, before deciding to wash it all down with a gulp of wine, which was acceptable to drink in small amounts. Miku looked through the bottles of wine on the table before her eyes focused on one vintage. She picked it up and examined the label carefully.

"Elven wine?" Miku said in surprise. Elves made wine? Miku knew little of elves, but she had always assumed that they were a pure race; at least, the ones in the Tower disliked intoxicating substances. Apparently the Lower World corrupts all.

Miku shook her head, uncorked the bottle, and took a carefully measured gulp of the wine, its flavor complex and sweet, the heat rushing down her throat. Miku found that she liked it so much, she reasoned that it wouldn't hurt to sip a little more, so she did and put the bottle back. By now, she was feeling rather sleepy and satisfied, so she marched up the stairs and flopped down on the bed, a large and comfortable one of feathers and a quilted down comforter. She fell asleep soon enough, feeling at peace at last in this corrupt world.

It was unfortunate then that she awoke a few hours later to the sight of a few heavily armed guards staring down at her on the bed, with an outraged man in the background gabbering on about how he returned home to find his wine drunk and his food eaten.

Miku gulped. By the looks of it, this would not end well.


	2. Chapter 2

Luka awoke to a loud commotion outside. Annoyed, she sat up and sleepily rubbed her eyes, wondering why people couldn't just pipe down and be quiet at such a late hour. She crawled out of bed, yawning, and peered out the window. There was a large group of guards standing outside Bruno Giuseppe's house, and there was...Luka squinted, a teal-haired girl struggling with the guards, kicking up a huge fuss, yelling and screaming. Luka blinked and was about to go back to sleep before she realized that that girl was the very same one that Luka rescued earlier. Luka rolled her eyes; what kind of trouble was she getting into now? Despite the less-than-amicable way they last parted, however, Luka felt a small measure of sympathy for the girl, lost and alone in the Lower World, a runaway from the Crypton Tower.

She couldn't just leave her there to be taken to prison. Luka shuddered at the thought of that innocent girl cooped up behind bars and so she sighed, wondered why she was doing this in the first place, and ran out of her house, hastily stuffing her feet into worn sandals.

"Hey!" Luka called. The guards turned. Luka paused. She did not actually have a plan for this. "Uh...why're you all being so noisy? Some of us are trying to sleep!"

"Don't blame us," said one guard, a burly man with a thick mustache. He frowned at the girl, who was struggling with another guard. "Blame her. She's the one being noisy."

"She ate my food!" cried Bruno. "And then she drank my elven wine! And then she had the gall to sleep in my bed! It's a wonder she didn't break my chair in the process!"

Luka nodded and looked sympathetic. "I see. Kids these days. No responsibility. She's probably roaring drunk now," Luka walked over to the girl and looked at her before gently taking her by the wrist, again. "Well Bruno, look at her. She's obviously scared, alone...why, just earlier today she was acting as though she was a princess."

The mustached guard rubbed his chin, thoughtfully. "Yes... I did hear something about a delusional girl who thought she was a princess…"

Luka laughed, a little nervously. "Well, someone like her should be put in a mental facility, do you not think? Of course, someone as great and generous as myself has more than enough time to take her off of your hands, eh?" She gently extricated the girl away from the guard she had been struggling with. "So how about you just let me take her and then we can call it a day..."

"Hold it!" screamed Bruno. "You're Megurine Luka!" he pointed accusingly at Luka. "Don't listen to her, guards, she's just a dirty, thieving street rat!"

Luka's smile shrank a little. "Um...well, just 'cause I'm a thief doesn't mean I'm not civic minded, you know..." The guards were slowly approaching her, and Luka gulped. "I mean, I care about the uh, quality of our community and I think that it's not very conductive to stick mentally ill people into prison and whatnot, they won't be able to get the, er, help they need there, and...and..." The guards obviously weren't listening to her. Luka trailed off before she chuckled nervously and then she grabbed the girl by her wrist again and started running. As if she set off some sort of signal, the guards ran after her.

Thankfully, it was dark, and there were no lights in any windows. Luka knew the town well, so after running and taking a few turns and twists, she took a sharp right turn into an alley and pushed open the stone beneath her feet. She grabbed the girl and dragged her into the small hideout with her before shutting the stone. It was completely dark. Luka could feel the girl breathing heavily from the run next to her.

"You really need to stop getting into trouble, young woman," Luka scolded, a little jokingly.

The girl scoffed. "I could handle myself."

Luka rolled her eyes. "Yeah, great job out there. You definitely could have fought off all those guards by yourself."

"Shut up!" the girl yelled, right into Luka's ear, and Luka winced. She was beginning to regret saving the girl. "I just...the Lower World is strange. What did I do wrong? I'm a noble. I can sleep wherever I want."

"It doesn't work that way," Luka said, a little amused by the thought of people sleeping wherever they wanted, no concept of private property. "Here, there are things called 'ownership'. Bruno bought that house, it is his, and it is private. If anyone could march in and eat his food and sleep in his bed, he'd run out of money just trying to feed everyone!"

"Again with money," the girl sighed. "What's 'money'?"

"Basically it's just stuff you use to buy stuff," said Luka, not really sure on how to adequately explain the concept. "Everything costs something, and money is what you use to pay."

There was a silence. The girl sniffed disdainfully and said nothing. Luka twiddled her thumbs and looked around the hideout.

"Um...so," said Luka, "I've never been to the Crypton Tower before. What's it like living there?"

The girl sighed. "It's...it's a wonderful place," she looked down. "Peaceful, and no one sinned, everything was pure. We didn't have money or guards. We didn't need them. Farmers give us nobles food and the people on the lower floors give us entertainment." There was more than a touch of wistfulness in the girl's voice, and Luka found herself wondering why the girl left in the first place. She sounded so happy, talking about it.

"So why did you leave?" Luka asked. "You sound as though you were really happy there."

"I didn't leave because I wanted to," and the girl's voice grew chilly again.

Luka bit her lip. "Oh. Um, so...what's your name?"

"What?"

"Your name. Unless Cryptonites don't have names?"

"Of course I have a name," the girl snapped. "I don't want to give it to a filthy lowborn like you. You smell terrible."

Luka somewhat self-consciously sniffed her rags and her hand. Nothing especially pungent. "I smell okay."

"When was the last time you bathed?" the girl asked.

Luka thought. "I wash my face and whatnot everyday, but the last time I took a bath was a few weeks ago in the river."

The girl looked disgusted and Luka felt her edge a little away from her. "Lowborns..."

"Okay, okay," said Luka, eager to get away from the topic of her personal hygiene. "So what's your name? If I'm going to be rescuing you all the time, I don't want to just call you 'the girl'."

"I don't want to give you my name!" the girl flared up.

Luka sighed, dramatically. "Oh, very well. I suppose I'll have to call you a different name then...like," and here Luka coughed and said 'bitch' at the same time.

"What did you call me?" the girl asked.

"Huh? What? Me?" Luka looked around, her eyes wide and innocent. "What'd I call you?"

"You swore at me!" the girl sounded horrified. "You...you dirty lowborn!"

"I didn't swear at you," said Luka. "I was merely saying that from now on I'll call you..." and she coughed out 'bitch' again. "Is it just me or is it really dusty in here?"

"How dare you," said the girl, her voice low and menacing.

"What? What'd I do?" Luka said. "I mean, you won't give me my name, so I guess from now on I'll just have to call you that."

"My name," the girl hissed, "is Miku Hatsune."

"Oh," Luka smiled. "Nice to meet you, Miku. I'm Luka, Luka Megurine."

"I know," said Miku, icily. "I heard. You're a thieving, dirty lowborn street rat, right?"

Luka's smile dropped. She didn't like to be reminded of what she really was, despite the fact that she knew it was true. She really was a street rat, and nothing she did would ever change that.

"Yeah, I guess," Luka mumbled, and she looked away. "Anyways, so what are you going to do now?"

Miku was silent for a while. "...I don't know."

"Why can't you just go back to the Tower if you love it so much?" asked Luka. "You obviously hate it here."

Miku bit her lip. "I can't go back. I c-can't. I...it..."

It was still too dark for Luka to see adequately, but Miku's voice was cracking a little. She sounded as though she was about to cry. Luka gaped at her for a few seconds before her mind kicked back into gear. Luka hesitantly reached out a hand so that she could place it on Miku's shoulder before she remembered how touchy Miku was about that sort of thing, and she withdrew, licking her lips nervously, not sure what to say. Luka had never comforted anyone before, but she recognized that whatever happened to Miku, it was bad, and for that reason, she could not go back to the Tower.

"Hey," said Luka, softly. "It's okay. The Lower World isn't too bad. How about this? I can teach you how to survive here. It's not too hard."

Miku managed a laugh. "Me? A thieving street rat?"

Luka took a deep breath. "Well, it's better than getting into trouble with the guards everyday. Sooner or later they'll start recognizing your face."

Miku looked down. "I..." She was trembling; Luka could feel Miku shaking next to her. All at once, Luka felt a rush of pity for the girl, marooned in a world she thought was evil, unable to return home, trapped in a maze of sins and evils. Miku was terrified.

"Hey, everything's going to be okay," Luka said, softly. "I mean...it's really not so bad here. Sometimes it's even fun. I'm willing to help you out, and trust me, no one knows the streets as well as I do. You'll be street smart in no time."

Miku said was silent for a long while before she hugged her knees to her chest and buried her head inbetween her knees. "I don't want to be street smart...I...I just want to go home..."

Luka scratched the back of her head and looked up. "Then...why don't you? Are you lost?"

Miku only started to cry, tiny sniffling sobs, and Luka bit her lip, looked around, and tried to think of something, anything, that she could say to make Miku feel better. Her sobs were almost heart-rending; they were the cries of a little girl lost. Luka was starting to become a little frantic - she had no idea how to deal with tears, and so she was still sensitive to the sight of a pitiful, crying girl.

"Hey," said Luka to Miku, a weak smile on her face, "I'll help you, okay? Don't cry. Things'll be alright. Really. I mean, if you're lost, I can take you to the Crypton Tower. It's not really far from here."

"I can't go back!" Miku's head shot back up, and her voice was loud. "I can't! I can't go back!"

"Okay, okay," Luka spoke quietly and soothingly, "relax. We can talk about this later, okay? Let's get out of here first. You can sleep in my house, and..." Luka trailed off once she saw the look of disgust Miku was giving her. "What?"

Miku covered up her body. "I'm going to your house!" Her eyes were wide with indignant fear. "I've been taught about this," Miku shuddered, "in the Lower World, when people invite people to their houses, they...they..." Miku squeezed her eyes shut. "Don't touch me, you filthy perverted lowborn!"

Luka took a deep breath. "Miku, I'm not going to touch you. Contrary to what you might have learned, we aren't all perverts, okay? If it makes you feel more comfortable, I'll even sleep outside. It's just that you need a place to sleep, so you can sleep at my house."

Miku warily regarded Luka for a few moments and slowly dropped her arms from her body. "Okay, I'll trust you, lowborn. Although, if you make the slightest move..."

_Good to see that she's not crying anymore, _Luka thought to herself, before she nodded and smiled. "Trust me, I'm not going to do anything bad to you. What kind of girl do you think I am?" Luka slid open the stone above her and climbed out into the cool night air, Miku climbing out after her. Luka slid the stone back and led Miku over to her house. As they approached, Luka suddenly felt rather ashamed of her more-than-humble dwelling - to Miku's Crypton eyes, her house probably seemed so ramshackle and sad. However, Luka stayed silent and courteously opened the wooden door, and let Miku in first before following her in.

Miku was obviously nervous, Luka noted. She kept looking around the house in a jittery sort of way, her body tense, looking as though the slightest noise would be enough to send her running out the door. Luka spread her arms wide.

"Here it is," Luka said, "my humble abode. Bedroll's over there," Luka pointed to her bedroll.

Miku stared at it. "No...bed?"

"I just pointed at it," said Luka.

"That's just some...piece of cloth on the floor!"

"No," said Luka, with more patience than she actually felt. "It's bedding and a blanket. Perfectly adequate place to sleep."

Miku took a few steps towards the bedroll and crouched down next to it. She sniffed the bedroll, rubbed the blanket between her fingers. She wrinkled her nose. "This has dirt all over it! I'm not sleeping in a dirty bed!"

Luka took a breath and reminded herself that Miku was lost and confused in a strange new world but still, did she really have to be so...so...uptight? "Okay, but it's the only thing you can go to sleep on. Just relax, Miku. It won't hurt you. Just a bit of dirt, that's all. I'll clean it tomorrow in the river. And I'll take a bath too, alright?"

Miku frowned, obviously unhappy with the arrangement. "Fine."

-o-o-o-

Over the period of a few days, Luka took Miku around the town, showing her the complex network of streets, the various hideouts in town, as well as the river for bathing.

When the two of them first reached the river, Miku recoiled in disgust. It was a clear and hot day, and several people were already in the waters of the Elefan River.

Luka had brought along her bedroll to be cleaned as well as a bucket, and she looked at Miku, confused by her reaction. "What? What's wrong?"

"Mixed bathing!" Miku managed to say.

Luka glanced over at the people in the water, recognizing a few as street thieves like herself. One of them grinned up at her and waved, and Luka smiled and waved back.

Miku stared at Luka. "Wh-what kind of hand signal was that?"

"A wave," Luka said, confused. "You know, a greeting."

Miku was silent for a while, and Luka shrugged. "So are you going to get in?"

Miku silently shook her head.

"Why not?" Luka asked. "Good day today, perfect for some bathing in the river."

"I can't expose myself to everyone here," Miku mumbled.

"Aw," Luka smiled. Such childish embarrassment. "Don't worry about it, Miku. No one'll care. I mean, everyone here is naked."

As if to prove Luka's point, two men and a woman walked by, all three of them completely naked. Miku covered her eyes as they walked past.

"I, I just don't want to show people my body!" Miku said after a few minutes passed and she verified that the naked people had left. "In the Crypton, privacy was important...no one other than myself had ever seen my naked body, and I plan on...I plan on keeping it that way!"

Luka blinked and wondered how the people of the Crypton Tower got around to reproducing if they were all so uptight. Still, she could understand some of Miku's shyness. "Oh. But this is the only place that..." Luka cast her eyes around the river before an idea hit her.

"Hold onto this for me," Luka shoved the bedroll into Miku's arms and ran down to the river. She crouched down and filled the bucket with water before bounding back up, almost slipping due to the mud on the hill and how heavy the bucket was, but she managed to get up without falling.

"Ta da!" Luka grinned and thrust the bucket at Miku, who looked baffled.

"What?" said Miku.

"You can use this for bathing, see," Luka poked at the bucket. "Just wet some cloth and scrub yourself. I can get you a brush, maybe soap, and a screen, and you'll be all set. Oh, and while you're at it, wash the bedroll too since you're so uptight about it."

Miku stared at Luka before looking away. "Okay. Good. This is how all you people should bathe instead of...instead of _that_," she waved her hand at the river. Luka glanced over at it and shrugged.

An hour later, Luka had managed to steal a brush and a small cake of soap. Cradling the soap reverently in her hands, very well aware that soap was an expensive luxury for the rich, Luka presented Miku with the soap first before handing her the brush. Miku grabbed the soap casually as well as the brush before retreating behind a makeshift screen Luka had managed to make with some of the junk lying around the outside of her house.

Soon enough, Miku emerged from behind the screen with her clothes back on, holding a sopping wet bedroll in her hands. She hung it up on the branch of a nearby tree. Luka got up and walked over to Miku.

"There you go," said Luka, cheerfully. "All clean now, right?" Luka couldn't help but to lean in a little closer and sniff Miku; after all, Miku had used _soap_, and Luka had never met anyone who had. Miku smelled of exotic herbs, and roses, and the relaxing scent of lavender; in other words, wonderful to Luka's sensitive nose. Luka could hardly believe it. No one she met had ever smelled so nice. Luka smiled to herself and she reminisced on how she managed to steal the soap. It was a tough job, but Luka had been trained well in thievery, and-

"Are you _smelling _me?" Miku asked, her voice heavy with disgust and disdain.

Luka backed away. "Sorry. It's just that I've never smelled soap before."

Miku stared at Luka. "Is that so..."

Luka settled for a succinct nod. Miku walked over behind the screen and walked back, carrying the soap in her hands. She offered it to Luka, who took it. It was still slippery from the bath Miku took earlier. Luka idly ran her fingers around it.

"You know," said Luka, "this is good quality soap from the south, made of olive oil...not the tallow up here. Soap like this is reserved for the rich. We're lucky we get it for free then, eh?" Luka smiled at Miku before tossing the soap up, catching it, and putting it near her nose, taking a deep inhale. The herbal smell of the soap wafted up her nostrils and Luka sighed lightly. She could smell this forever.

"Why don't you wash with it, then?" Miku asked.

Luka laughed. "Me, wash with a fine item like this? No way. It's too good for the likes of me. Plus, what's the point? I'll only get dirty again the next day."

"Still," said Miku, "it keeps you clean. You know, if you don't wash, you'll get sick. From germs. And that river water...it looked filthy. What do you Lower World people do with your waste?"

Luka thought. "Well, we just dump it into the river. What are germs? People get sick from humor unbalances. Is 'germs' another word for 'humor unbalances'?."

There was a long silence. A horrified expression was slowly making its way across Miku's face.

"What?" Luka asked.

Miku screamed and started scrubbing at herself furiously with her hands.

-o-o-o-

Luka was pleased to see that she was making a little more progress in terms of breaking Miku's shell; for one, Miku slowly stopped calling Luka a 'thieving lowborn', and she started to call Luka by her name more often. Not only that, but she seemed a little bit more comfortable in the Lower World; not a lot, but a little. Luka herself was beginning to feel some affection for Miku. The life of a thief was a lonely one, and Luka did not realize how much she missed steady companionship until now. Their life together could even be considered as relatively peaceful, until that one fateful day that changed everything.

It started out normally enough. Luka and Miku were outside, sitting next to the weapon shop, enjoying some fresh loaves of bread and, as a rare treat, some skewered meat that Luka naturally had to steal. It was another hot summer day and Luka was dressed in her ragged clothes while Miku's own clothing, before clean and neat, was beginning to become increasingly deteriorated no matter how much time Miku spent cleaning it. (Oddly, after learning about the waste, Miku refused to wash in the river.)

However, Luka sensed a sort of odd movement in the crowd, a restless one, and then someone started screaming. Luka immediately stood up and looked around. The crowd was beginning to break into a disorganized, panicked mob, and the street carts were being pushed aside, and even the shopkeepers are screaming and running and leaving their wares behind.

"What's happening?" Miku asked, looking up at Luka. "Is this some Lower World festival?"

"No festival," said Luka, hurriedly. She pulled Miku up and started to run, dragging Miku behind her. "I don't know what's happening, but...I think we should get out of here-ah!"

The weapon shop behind them exploded, sending Miku and Luka flying from the force of it. Luka quickly grabbed hold of Miku and hugged her so that when she landed, Miku wouldn't hit the cobblestone ground. Luka landed and gritted her teeth at the stinging pain in her back, and then she hurriedly got up, grabbed onto Miku's wrist, feeling some deep essential need to protect her - Miku was Luka's responsibility and Luka had told her that she would help her, but somehow help had morphed into 'protect'.

Luka ducked into an alley, panting heavily. Miku was stumbling around, tired and disoriented. Luka peered from the corner of the alley and saw a company of armored soldiers. From what Luka could see, they bore no banner, nothing that would identify them. They were merely armored soldiers.

"Did some other country declare war on us?" Luka mumbled to herself, before looking over at Miku, who was shaking, almost violently, her eyes wide open, her face almost completely white with fear. Luka put her arm around her and drew her close.

"Shh, shh," said Luka. She slid open the stone underneath her feet, but then she saw that the hideout was packed full of people.

"No use trying the other ones," said a pasty-faced woman, "they're all filled up too." She then slid shut the stone. Luka licked her lips nervously and began to think about hiding places, before she noticed to her disgust that her hands were trembling. Luka took a few deep breaths. She did not want to worry Miku even more. She had to look as though she had a plan.

"Okay," said Luka to Miku. "Wait here."

Miku violently shook her head and clung onto Luka, pathetically, like a frightened child. "No. No! You're going to leave me, aren't you? You're going to die."

"I'm not going to die," Luka soothed, "I'm just going to scope out the enemy."

"No!" Miku held on tighter to Luka, and Luka saw that she really did look completely terrified. She was even beginning to cry. "No..."

"Shh," Luka patted Miku's head in what she hoped was a reassuring manner. "Okay. Okay. Fine. Let's try to sneak out." She looked down the alley. "There."

The two of them ran down the alley before Luka heard shouts from behind her. She turned. A soldier was pointing straight at her and Miku.

"There she is!" he yelled.

At that, the whole entire company seemed to rush behind the soldier before splitting up. The soldiers remaining began to run towards Luka and Miku, who was now completely stiff with fear. Luka said nothing, and only began to run, dragging Miku behind her. Her heart pounded loud in her ears and Luka ran faster than she ever did before, still dragging Miku behind her, who was slowing her down, she couldn't escape, Luka could already see the swords cutting her to shreds...it would be so easy to escape if Luka was to leave Miku here and save her own skin...

No! Luka shook her head. What was she thinking? Miku needed her. Luka said that she would help Miku, and even though the girl was rude and prudish and uptight and naive about the Lower World, she was someone Luka cared for. Luka never wanted to be a selfish street rat, and she wasn't going to start now. Luka employed more dodging tricks then she had ever done in her lifetime, but Miku couldn't quite keep up with it all.

Luka ran into a house, but then she screeched to a halt as a group of soldiers ran in front of her - they had been waiting in the house, it was a trap, and then she tried to run left, but no, another group was closing in, and then right, but there were soldiers there too. Behind...there were soldiers. The town was burning. Luka could smell sweat and metal and blood and the acrid smell of burning human flesh. Apparently the soldiers had set fire to every building in the town, save this one. Miku clung to Luka, shaking with fear, and Luka looked around, desperate, for an escape, but there was no escape.

"There she is," said one of the soldiers. "Caught her at last."

Miku actually whimpered and clutched tighter to Luka.

"Who are you people?" Luka demanded. "And what do you want with Miku?"

"None of your concern," said the soldier. "You're going to die with her soon, anyways...perhaps you'll found out in the afterlife."

Luka couldn't process it. Her mind seemed to have shut down. She was going to die. Right here. The soldier raised his sword over her head, and Miku...Luka couldn't do anything to help Miku this time, she was useless, nothing more than a street rat, after all. Luka wanted badly to turn to Miku and apologize, but her words caught in her throat, the sword was so close, Luka held tightly onto Miku's trembling hand, trying to give her some small reassurance, the sword fell, and then there was a searing, hot light that burned into Luka's eyes. Miku's hand stopped trembling, and Luka was falling into blackness.

-o-o-o-

"Ugh..." Luka's head hurt terribly. She could see Miku's face above her own, blurry and indistinct before Luka's vision slowly cleared. The sharp iron scent of blood filled her nostrils, thick and heavy.

"Are you okay?" Miku asked. Her voice echoed in Luka's ears and Luka winced, held up a hand. Miku obediently quieted. Luka sat up, groaning, rubbing her head.

"What...happened?" Luka asked, foggily. "How did we survive...?"

Miku looked down. "I don't know. I just felt...something well up inside me. Before I knew it...the soldiers all died," Miku closed her eyes and a shudder passed through her body. "They looked so scary, the way they died. Like...like they were in complete agony. They didn't have any wounds on them, but...but..."

"You killed them?" Luka sat up and stared at Miku, who didn't look so harmless anymore.

Miku looked down and closed her eyes and nodded. "I...I think so."

"Th-that's...that's terrible," Luka got up to her feet, her breaths shallow and fast. She was standing next to a murderer...Luka had never killed anyone and she steered clear of cutthroats and murderers, and now Miku killed not one, not two, but a whole company of men, all of whom died in agony. "You killed them?"

Miku nodded, looking pained. Luka, horrified, began to slowly back away. She looked around the town, burning, burning, everything in ashes, and with chilling certainty, Luka knew - the town had been completely annihilated. There were no survivors. And...from the sounds of it, the soldiers had been after Miku. It was all Miku's fault. She was the one who brought all this suffering and death to Luka's town. If she hadn't been here, none of this would have happened.

"Everyone's dead..." said Luka, softly, before she glared at Miku, who flinched at Luka's gaze. "This is all your fault!"

"Luka..." Miku said, her voice weak and full of entreaty. "I didn't know that they'd attack here..."

"Well, people still died, didn't they!" Luka snapped. "People...people died because of you! A whole town! Everyone I knew..." Luka's hands dropped limply to her sides. "Everyone...dead...because of you! This is all your fault, you...you monster!"

Miku stared at Luka, her eyes wide, full of shocked hurt. "I...I..." Miku then composed herself and then she glared at Luka. "Fine! You...stupid lowborn! I saved your life, didn't I?" Miku's voice was bitter. "And...I didn't mean for anyone to die! I'm not a monster! I'm not, you hear me!" Miku's voice was a high and desperate and scared. "I'm _not_!"

"You are!" Luka started to walk away. "Don't follow me!"

"I won't!" Miku yelled after her.

-o-o-o-

Luka walked through the smoldering ruins of the town she grew up in. She walked down old alleys, now filled with dead bodies. Luka nudged her foot, opened a hideout, and to her horror, saw a packed room of dead bodies. Luka felt a wave of disgust wash through her body and she ran away to the main square. She surveyed the destruction. Every building, burned. Desperate, Luka began to look for survivors. She searched every house, looked in every basement, even peered into the river. But there were no survivors. Luka saw the burned carcasses of lovers dying in each others' embrace, the guards roasted alive in their own plate armor. The dead laid in alleys and roads, their limbs black and skinny and shriveled from the heat. Luka couldn't stand it. She ran and vomited into the river as she felt the tears run down her face. Everyone was dead. Everyone...the only one left alive was Luka, and she only survived because of Miku, the one who started it all in the first place. It was a cruel irony.

Miku...Luka closed her eyes, beginning to feel a small pang of regret in her. The girl looked so hurt when Luka called her a monster. Unbidden, memories of the brief time the two spent together flashed through Luka's mind, and Luka managed a smile at the memory of Miku unwittingly stealing an apple. However, then Luka remembered what she told Miku. How she would help her. Luka remembered that she told herself that she would protect Miku. She remembered Miku desperately grabbing onto Luka when the soldiers attacked, her terror and panic. She remembered the naked hurt in Miku's eyes when Luka called her a monster.

Luka closed her eyes.

"I'm way too soft," she mumbled to herself, and then she opened her eyes and ran off to look for Miku.


	3. Chapter 3

Miku apparently did not want to be found.

Luka searched everywhere in the village all over again, up and down, calling out Miku's name all the while. She even returned to look at the various underground hideouts to see if Miku would by chance be snuggling up with the corpses in there, but no, the only people in the hideouts were dead. Luka gave up searching - obviously Miku left long ago, and Luka was just wasting her time; why would Miku stay in a burned wreck of a village, especially after Luka yelled at her? Luka sighed and trudged the way back to her home, hoping to find it unscathed, but no, it was completely burned to ashes. Luka walked up to the smoldering cinders and looked down on it, frowning. Her old house, now gone forever...Luka shuddered, suddenly feeling a stab of icy cold fear. What would she do? Her town was completely destroyed, and Luka only ever knew the streets of Marlon. In other towns, what would she do? Thieve again? Marlon was very liberal when it came to thieves, and Luka knew that other towns would not be so forgiving; getting caught stealing in other towns is a recipe for getting a hand chopped off. Luka rubbed her eyes, which suddenly felt wet, and her throat was closing in as she began to sniff. She could feel her cheeks and nose turning red as she began to cry. To Luka's surprise, however, she heard the sound of someone crying nearby...someone...

Miku! Luka followed the sound of sobbing, down the worn dirt road next to the wreckage of her house, the one that led to the great world outside Marlon, and found Miku sitting a little outside the village, her back against a tree, sniffling.

Luka approached Miku carefully, not wanting to startle the girl, especially after what Luka said to her earlier. She felt a stab of guilt at the thought of it. Calling someone a monster, blaming someone for the deaths of who knows how many people, dehumanizing someone, that was something terrible, something Luka thought she was above...apparently not. Luka gently put her hand on Miku's shaking shoulder, and Miku stiffened.

"Miku?" Luka said, softly.

Miku looked down, trying to hide her tears. "Wh-what do you want?"

"I want to say sorry," said Luka. "I shouldn't have lost my head like that. I shouldn't have yelled at you. I shouldn't have called you a monster. I'm sorry."

Miku sniffed and looked away. "Do you really think I'll forgive you so easily?"

Now it was Luka who looked down, her face burning with shame. "I...I'm sorry. I...it's just that I...my town just got burned down, and...and everyone's dead," Luka looked up at the sky and swallowed, trying to keep her tears from falling. "The hideouts are stuffed full of corpses, you know? And my house got burned down too...everything's gone..." Luka's hands were trembling and she removed her hand from Miku's shoulders and rubbed at her own tears. "Everything..."

Miku said nothing, only letting Luka cry out her feelings, and Luka did, dissolving into a sobbing wreck, her thoughts of her village, her willpower weak, the future bleak and frightening and lonely. Luka didn't even feel like herself; she felt as though she had given her body over to some strange thing that made her cry and cry and cry, although her mind was muddled too. Everything she knew had just disappeared in one day, and it was too much for Luka.

"I know how you feel," said Miku, her voice distant. "Those very same people attacked the Tower too. They called us all heretics, and they were after me...I only escaped because my friend covered for me, and I..." Miku shuddered. "One of the invading knights, they...and I..."

Luka quickly pulled Miku into a hug, recognizing that she had to comfort Miku now. After learning this, Luka now hated herself for saying what she said earlier. Miku's home had been attacked too...how many times had Luka inadvertently hurt Miku by asking her why she couldn't go back? Luka stared down at the top of Miku's head as she felt Miku's tears soak into her shirt, heard her muffled sobs, smelled the smoke in her hair. Why Miku? Perhaps it was because of that remarkable power she displayed earlier when she killed a whole company of men with some kind of magic...

Luka gently rubbed Miku's back in large circles until Miku slowly stopped sobbing, but the two of them still remained outside the wreckage of the village for a long time, holding onto each other.

-o-o-o-

It was the next day, and, somehow perversely, it was a beautiful one, the sky blue and the trees a perfect emerald green. The dirt felt warm and soft under Luka's toes as she set upon repairing her worn sandals with a few pieces of unburnt straw. Luka staunchly told herself to not look back at the village; it would only make her cry more. Now that her hometown was gone, Luka felt a dull thrum of disconnectedness, as if she was set adrift, with no anchor, nothing that would bring her back down to earth. Not only that, but she also felt something strange, something angry and fiery and consuming. Luka thought of the soldiers, the knights, that had attacked Marlon yesterday and that strange feeling flared up and temporarily overwhelmed her mind with nothing but a combination of grief and anger. Luka's fingers fumbled and the straw slipped out of the holes she made, and Luka let out a hiss of anger and exasperation as she began to painstakingly rethread the sandals.

Miku was sitting down on the grass, watching Luka. She didn't seem to know what to say, or do, so she settled for pulling the grass until Luka finished and slipped her sandals back on. She exhaled and tried to block out the anger towards the knights inside her. They were dead. There was nothing Luka could do to them. And Luka did not even know who they were fighting for, so there's a dead end.

"So now what?" Miku asked.

Luka took a deep breath. "Now what...? Miku, aren't you angry at the knights?"

Miku looked away and Luka noticed that her hands were clenched tightly into fists. "Of course I am! They destroyed the Tower!" Miku got up to her feet and started yelling. "They tried to kill me! Why wouldn't I be angry at them?"

"Yeah," said Luka, Miku's anger rapidly fueling her own. "And after yesterday...even though they're dead, I...agh!" Luka punched the ground uselessly with her fist, wanting some way to expel the anger inside her, before she got a hold on herself, smothered her anger, forced herself to calm down. They were dead. There was no point in getting angry at the dead, and Luka didn't even have a specific country or organization to assign her anger to. Luka took a deep breath.

"Okay," said Luka to Miku. "They were trying to kill you. Do you know why?"

Miku glared at Luka. "What? How would I know how their weird lowborn minds think? I don't know why they're trying to kill me!"

"Probably because of the power you have," Luka said. "You killed them all, right?"

Miku bit her lip and her hand unconsciously went to the shoulder where her Crypton tattoo was. "Y-yeah..."

"Well, that's a lead," said Luka, and she stood up. "So we know it has something to do with magic...then..." Luka snapped her fingers. "We should go to Avagrin!"

"Avagrin?" Miku echoed.

Luka nodded. "It's the city of magic."

"Oh," Miku frowned. "Lowborns do magic? That's not possible."

"It is," Luka corrected. "After all, people from the Crypton Tower came from the so-called 'Lower World' in the first place anyways. I mean, I don't know how to do magic...you need to study a lot for that, like, ever since you turn three, but...I mean, I think maybe they can help you out."

"Why would they help me?" Miku turned away. "I killed a whole company of men. Mages are curious, you know," Miku's voice was a little distant. "They might want to experiment on me..."

"I won't let that happen!" Luka said hotly, her mind recoiling at the thought of Miku being taken in for who knows what, before almost immediately she felt stupid and ashamed. She should've remembered that mages were not known for being very ethical whenever it comes to new things, and...Luka looked down. She was just a street rat. How could she protect Miku from that? But, the two of them had to find answers, too...they can't just run, otherwise they would never stop running. Luka shook her head impatiently. "We'll just have to run if they go after you. I'll protect you."

Miku stared at Luka before she looked down again. "Really..."

"Of course," said Luka. "I mean, my village is destroyed now. We have to stick together." Luka did not mention that she also had nowhere else to go. She was stuck with Miku; Luka somehow knew that if she did not follow Miku, if she did not support her, or protect her, the rest of her life would be spent in the uncaring wilderness.

Miku looked up, her face a little pale and worried now, and she crept a little closer to Luka so that she was standing next to her, and nodded quietly. "Okay."

-o-o-o-

After going back to the village to scavenge for unburnt food, the two of them set off in the northerly direction to Avagrin. Luka was clutching a singed map she found in Bruno's house, two waterskins, as well as a sack of miscellaneous foods ranging from cheese to turnips - enough to last the two of them a few days. Luka was also nervously holding a plain iron shortsword looted from one of the knight's bodies. There were creatures in the wilderness, and everyone who went outside the bounds of a populated area had to bring along some form of protection. A sword was all Luka had - the armor was far too heavy for her to wear.

The landscape around the two of them did not change, not since they left the village. The two of them were on a beaten track through the nearby woods, surrounded by tall trees that blotted out the sun, allowing only a few beams of light here and there through to illuminate the path.

"After we go through the forest," said Luka, as she consulted the map, "we just take the public road, following it, and then we should reach Avagrin." She traced the path with her finger. Although she did not know the scale of the map, as she never quite learned how to read them very well, Avagrin didn't seem _too_far, really...

Miku took the map out of Luka's hands and looked before making an odd, squeaky choke. "That's twelve leagues away!"

Luka blinked. "What are 'leagues'?"

"It'd take us hours to get there," Miku said, her voice disconsolate. "Is there any way to get there faster?"

Luka checked the map again. "Um, we don't have money..."

"But you're a thief, right?" Miku said, apparently shedding her morals for this occasion. "Can't you just steal some money? Or a horse?"

"They have horses in the Tower?" Luka stared at Miku. "And no, it's not that simple! Marlon's known for being easy on thieves like me. If I get caught anywhere else..." Luka held up her hand and wriggled the fingers on it meaningfully. Miku caught onto what Luka was getting at, and looked down and sighed.

"I've never walked so much before," mumbled Miku.

"Walking is good for you," said Luka.

Miku sighed and nodded.

-o-o-o-

A few hours later, however, Luka was regretting this 'walking' thing. There was a burning, sore sensation in her legs, and her stomach ached a little. She was even staggering as she walked. Miku was faring no better, her breaths heavy and tired. The two of them walked on a little more before Miku slumped over. Luka tried to catch her, but she was too tired; she tried and the two of them only fell down onto the dirt path together, raising up a cloud of brown dust that made Luka cough.

Luka tried to get up, but she couldn't. Her legs would not obey. The dirt underneath her actually felt comfortable, and Luka sighed. Miku rolled off of her and groaned.

"Thirsty," she mumbled.

Luka handed a waterskin to Miku, who put the spout to her lips and drank hungrily from it. Once she finished drinking her fill, she hooked the waterskin onto her belt and tried to get up, but failed, slumping back to the ground.

"Now what?" Miku asked, her voice a little sarcastic. "Crawl?"

Luka stared up through the trees. "Just rest. We should've taken a rest break earlier..." She sighed and managed to get up unsteadily to her feet. Her legs wobbled from her lack of strength, and Luka put her hand against a nearby tree trunk. She hobbled a little forward through the bushes, seeing a small clearing, and she motioned Miku over. The two of them sat down in the clearing, leaning against the tree trunks. Luka opened the sack and pulled out two oranges, handing one to Miku, before peeling her own, digging her fingernails into the pimpled orange flesh of the fruit, flicking the peels on the dirt, and separating the orange and eating each segment, feeling the skin burst under her teeth, releasing the tangy juices.

"It's almost night," said Miku, who had eaten her orange quickly. She looked around, anxiously. "Are we going to sleep here?"

Luka opened her mouth to answer, but at that moment, she felt something wet land on her head. Surprised, she looked up and held out her hand. More waterdrops landed on her face and hands. It was raining.

"No," said Luka, decisively, looking around. "It's raining. We should look for some shelter."

Miku frowned. "Where? We're in a forest!"

"Uh..." Luka was caught off guard, and she looked around some more. Nothing was in the clearing other than trees. Luka did not want to seem ignorant, though; after all, she had to take care of Miku. Luka put on her best 'I know what we're doing, trust me' face and she pointed in some random direction. "There's a cave over there."

"Oh," Miku brightened up a little. "Great! Let's hurry up and go there. I for one don't want to stand around in the rain any more."

Miku looked so relieved that Luka immediately felt guilty for lying. She opened her mouth to admit that she lied, but Miku was already tramping through the brush, and with a sigh, Luka lowered her shoulders, chided herself for lying, and followed Miku.

They walked for what seemed like hours in the rain, through endless foliage, no cave in sight. Luka's spirits were sinking lower and lower, and she was about to apologize to Miku when Miku suddenly gave out a cry.

"There's the cave!" Miku said, pointing, and Luka stared at it in disbelief. She was right; there was indeed a small rocky outgrowth from a hill, a small opening at its mouth, large enough for Luka and Miku to go in if they ducked their heads as they walked. Luka nodded and hurriedly ran up the hill into the mouth of the cave with Miku.

The inside of the cave was dark and rocky, and it seemed to lead down an incline. Luka and Miku walked in, a little deeper so as to escape the rain, when suddenly the two of them heard the sound of clattering and clanking from the darkness.

Immediately, the two of them stopped in their tracks. Luka was darting her eyes around, trying to see through the darkness, wishing that she had a torch or something of that sort. She slowly drew her sword and held it nervously in one hand. She had never really used a sword before, and its weight was alien and unfamiliar in her hands. Luka crept a little forward, peering into the darkness, waiting for her eyes to adjust. She felt Miku move in closer to her, nervously, seeking security...

As if Luka, who didn't even know how to use a sword, could provide that. She gulped.

"Maybe she shouldn't stay here for the night," Luka whispered, and then she heard something shift right in front of her.

Stifling a gasp, Luka looked back to her front and saw, shadow-grayed, the top of a bone-white dome. The dome tilted up and Luka could see to her horror that it was a skull, its eye sockets empty and gaping. Without another word, the skeleton raised a rusty, but still deadly-looking, mace and swung it down directly towards Luka's head. Luka instinctively brought her sword up to block. The mace hit against it with a resounding clang that deafened her ears and sent shockwaves up her arms.

"Run!" Luka screamed, and she heard Miku scramble back up towards the exit. She swung blindly at the skeleton, her blood pumping in her ears, and she felt the sword hit nothing but rattling bone. Luka backed away, back up to the mouth of the exit, and she hit Miku's back.

"Miku, move!" Luka gasped as she blocked another ringing hit from the skeleton.

"I...I can't," Miku whispered.

Luka darted her eyes back, moving her head a little to look. Blocking the exit to the cave were three goblins, their skin mottled and green, their noses long and beaklike, their limbs spindly. They were all wielding swords and shields. Luka's mouth almost dropped open at their sheer bad luck. Desperately, she kicked the skeleton away. "Miku, don't you know any spells? C-can't you use that...that one you used when you destroyed that company?"

"I don't know how to," Miku said, her voice high with fear. She mumbled some words under her breath and Luka heard three separate sickening snapping noises from behind her.

"What was that?" Luka asked as she grabbed Miku by the hand and ran down further into the cave so as to open up the area she had for fighting.

"A telekinesis spell," said Miku, who sounded a little dazed. "I...I broke their heads from their..."

"That's it!" Luka turned and placed her hands on Miku's shoulders. "Use that on the skeleton!"

"What?" Miku looked confused.

"The skeleton," Luka moved away from Miku and readied her shortsword again. The skeleton was slowly approaching the two of them, its bones rattling. "That one."

Miku nodded and quickly mumbled something. The skeleton's head snapped off and rolled across the floor, and almost immediately whatever necromantic magic had possessed it disappeared - the bones supporting the skeleton collapsed in a cacophonous heap.

Luka would have celebrated, if it wasn't for the fact that she was beginning to hear the sounds of more rattling, joined together with the sounds of strange and alien goblin-speak. From the sounds of it, the two of them were very obviously outnumbered.

"You _really _can't use that spell you used before?" Luka managed to say through the sudden fear that took hold of her muscles.

"No," said Miku.

Luka raised her sword for better blocking. "This is not good."


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: I would like to apologize in advance for the excessiveness of the elves ahead. I could not resist.

* * *

Luka and Miku were standing back to back in a large, dark cavern, as the ominous sounds of rattling bones and goblin cries reached them. Luka could make out, vaguely, the shape of a bowed skeleton approaching her. Miku let out a little gasp from behind Luka and started mumbling something to herself again, and once again Luka heard the snaps of breaking bone. The sounds only increased in frequency and amplitude. Luka looked around. They were surrounded by skeleton warriors. Slightly behind them were the hunched forms of goblins, one of whom was obviously a goblin chieftain, his neck adorned with rat skulls, carrying a staff with some goblin's head staked on it. One of the skeletons lunged forward to strike at Luka, and Luka desperately blocked and struck back. Her sword got caught in the skeleton's ribs and Luka tried to pull it back, bracing her back against Miku's.

"Stop it!" Miku hissed. "I can't concentrate!"

"My sword is stuck!" Luka cried, trying to free her sword from the skeleton.

"You two are the worst adventurers we've ever seen," said a graceful, musical voice.

Luka immediately turned to look for the source, before she found that the goblins surrounding the ring of skeletons were all dead, a good amount of the skeletons were being infused with a sort of blue light and collapsing, and, most prominent of all, there was a party of humanoids dressed in delicate green fabrics, some carrying bows, the others, swords. They looked lithe, nimble, their bodies slim and strong.

"Elves," Luka said, her voice a little awed. She had never seen any in the flesh before. There were never any elves in Marlon.

"We aren't adventurers," said Miku, her voice still Cryptonally haughty. "We were looking for shelter."

An elf laughed, a musical tinkling noise that was bliss to Luka's ears. She liked these elves already. "Shelter in this goblin-infested cave?"

"We didn't know it was a goblin-infested cave," said Luka, who was feeling a little dazzled. "We were just, um...looking for shelter."

Miku was looking at Luka with an odd look on her face that Luka could not understand. "Luka...snap out of it."

"Snap out of what?" asked Luka.

One elf separated from the group and walked over to Luka, his gait calm, confident, and graceful. Up close, his face was inhumanely beautiful, his hair a gorgeous shade of red-

"Luka!" Miku's voice was a little desperate now. Luka, confused, looked over at Miku.

"Luka," said the elf, and instantly Luka focused on the elf, all thoughts of Miku fading from her mind, as if she was being smothered by a blanket. "And...who are you?" He looked over at Miku, who frowned at him.

"Miku," said Miku, her voice icy.

The elf examined Miku with interest. "You aren't reacting like her."

"I'm used to elves," Miku said.

Luka could hardly believe that Miku could possibly get used to elves. They were so...perfect. They were flawless. Luka's eyes were completely fixed on the beautiful elf before her. He even _smelled _good, a clean forest smell of elms and bayberries and hawthorns.

"Enough, Yuuma," said a voice, more commanding, female this time. "They are trespassing on our forest."

Another female voice piped up, a little meeker than the others, yet no less beautiful, no less perfect. "But Mew, it was a mistake. I mean...we can be lenient. They're only travelers."

"Humans are humans," sniffed the commanding voice. "You do not know of these things, Yukari. So you'd do well to keep quiet."

"But...but," Yukari doggedly continued, "humans aren't all bad."

"Silence," snapped Mew. "You read too many of those human books. Do you remember what the humans did to the Nilveri? The war, the fighting, the slaughter..."

"I understand, Mew," said Yukari, her voice a little downcast this time.

Mew hesitated a little. "...Cuff them."

Yuuma nodded and, with a single, lithe movement, Luka found that her left hand was bound to Miku's right. So entranced was Luka with the elves, however, that she did not mind at all. She only grinned a little stupidly, eager to see the sight of the elf village, or wherever they lived.

"Nilveri?" Miku asked Yuuma. "I only know of the Silvani."

"We Nilveri live in the forests," said Yuuma. "The Silvani do not. That is all you need to know."

"What are Silvani?" Luka asked Miku.

Miku shrugged. "Elves that don't live in forests, I guess. The only elves where I..." she glanced at Yuuma's back, "where I lived were Silvani. That's what they called themselves."

"Oh," said Luka. She smiled. "I like elves."

Miku scoffed. "Don't like them _too _much."

-o-o-o-

The elves lived in a tree top village. There were homes, simple ones that melded with the trees, connected to each other via rope bridges. The air filtered in through the leaves, and there was a subtle energy to the air, one of magic and nature. There were rabbits and birds and even deer frolicking around, and Luka stared at them in wonder. They all looked so content. Yuuma patted the head of a deer as he passed, and it did not spook, nor did it run away; it just stood there, accepting, before bowing its head back down to the grass to eat.

Miku was frowning, but Luka didn't care. Everything looked so perfect and peaceful. There were a few elves out, some of them weaving, a few sitting down on the grass, sketching, writing, or reading. Some of them were playing instruments, or singing hauntingly beautiful songs. All of them stopped what they were doing to stare at Luka and Miku. Luka flushed under the weight of all their combined gazes, feeling a little ashamed of herself, of her ordinary humanity, compared to the graceful perfection of the elves.

"Snap out of it," Miku hissed.

"Snap out of what?" Luka smiled at Miku, dazedly. "Everything in here is so great...I wish I was an elf."

Miku stared at Luka before looking away, shaking her head. Eventually, their party entered the only ground-floor building of sorts - a grand hall, outdoors, with only columns around them. There were elves dressed in grand, light cloth of forest green standing around a wooden throne on an elaborately carved dais in a semicircle. Sitting on the throne was an elf of such beauty that Luka's breath caught in her throat. She could not tell its gender, but it was no less beautiful. Its face was flawless, it looked as though it was carved by angels. It had flowing blond hair and pointed ears pierced with blue rings. Its face was serene and calm, its body willowy and slim. When it spoke, its voice was so beautiful, Luka wanted to cry.

"More intruders?" it asked, softly.

"Yes, your majesty," said Mew, who Luka could see now was slightly more muscled than the other elves, her face hard and unyielding, yet no less beautiful. She held a grand steel rapier in her hand, and she was bowing her head a little. "We were going to execute them, but the princess asked for leniency."

The head elf turned its head to look sternly at an elf, presumably Yukari, with long lilac hair and pointed ears pierced with the same blue rings. Yukari flushed and looked down at her sandals.

"They were struggling against goblins and skeletons," said Yukari, meekly. "They are harmless."

"Appearances deceive," said the head elf, its tone lightly rebuking. "You know this."

"I know, but...but look at them!" Yukari lifted her head and swung her arm towards the cuffed Luka and Miku. "They are little more than children in the eyes of humans."

"I'm seventeen," said Luka, her tone dreamy.

"Seventeen was the age of Roluo Undegar when he destroyed Verandil and Jefrend," said the head elf. "They are too dangerous to let live."

Even though the elves were discussing their deaths, Luka found that she did not care. Their voices were surrounding her, making her mind grow lethargic and happy, like a glutton after a satisfying meal. She smiled sleepily and closed her eyes, enjoying the music of the elf voices.

"Please, father," pleaded Yukari. "They are harmless. And humans...humans are not as bad as we think they are."

"How dare you suggest that," said the head elf, his voice suddenly turning very cold. "They decimated our race. Us Nilveri used to span the whole of the land, until the humans burned our forests..."

"We have done the same to them, in the past," said Yukari.

"The humans are animals. Every day, they pervert nature. They slaughter animals. They cut down trees, wantonly. They do not respect the balance."

"But they write so beautifully," Yukari protested. "They sing. They dance. They create art. Like us. They are a new race. These humans are only children. Please spare them."

There was a long silence. Luka opened her eyes. The head elf was staring at Yukari, a strange, angry look distorting his perfect features.

"Very well," said the elf, stiffly. "They may go. But you must go with them. Travel with them, and maybe you will see the cruelty of humans first hand."

"What?" Yukari gaped at the head elf. "I...I have to...go with them? But father-"

"It is best for you to..._cleanse _yourself of your delusions," said the head elf, distantly. "Travel with them. If they are as harmless as you say, nothing will come to you. If at any time you feel threatened..." the head elf withdrew a small amulet from his robes and pressed it into Yukari's hands, "use the amulet, and you will return safely home, and hopefully you will have learned the errors of your belief."

Yukari took it, a baffled expression creasing her face. "But I..."

"Release the prisoners," said the head elf.

Luka felt the ropes around her wrist loosen and fall. She rubbed at her reddened, sore wrist with her free hand as she unsteadily got up with Miku, who was frowning. Luka herself was elated. She would be traveling with an elf. An elf! Sheer perfection!

"I..." Yukari started again, before the head elf shot her a withering look and she quieted.

"Get whatever you need," said the head elf, "and leave with them when you are ready. As for you two," the head elf turned to Luka and Miku, his face stern, shifting his gaze from one to the other. "If any of you lay so much as a finger on my daughter, then I will see that you both shall die."

"Yes sir," Luka grinned and nodded, not really parsing what the elf was saying, too enamored with the elves to notice.

Miku said nothing, but she nodded, her face clearly registering discontent.

-o-o-o-

Luka, Miku, and Yukari left the elf village. Up close, Luka now took the opportunity to examine Yukari more carefully than before. The elf had pale skin, and perfectly formed, pointed ears with deep blue earrings on each. Her eyes were a clear and friendly purple, her lips pink, her figure slim and graceful. She walked with a flowing, easy gait, one with the forest. She had arrows and a bow as her primary weapon, the bow lacquered and elegant. A belt encircled her slim hips, carrying a small gold pouch and a sheathed shortsword.

Luka's intense examination did not go unnoticed by the elf, who was looking uncomfortable.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked, a slight elvish accent tinging her voice, giving it even more of a musical quality. Her voice was clear and sweet.

"You're beautiful," said Luka, her voice awed.

Small spots of red appeared in Yukari's cheeks. "Wh-what? Um. Thank you?"

Miku sighed. "She's glamored."

"Oh..." Comprehension dawned on Yukari's face. "That does happen..."

"When does it wear off?" Miku's voice was a little annoyed.

"Um, I don't know," said Yukari. "I can make it so that you give off some glamor too. That way, she can get used to it at twice the rate."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Miku began, but all at once her voice sounded sweet and clear and wonderful. Luka stared at Miku in disbelief. Miku was stunningly beautiful. Luka noticed it before, of course, but now, it seemed as though Miku's beauty was cranked up by a factor of ten. Her hair, a perfect shade of teal, her eyes, a bewitching blue, her skin, pale and perfect and unblemished, her lips, soft and pink...

"Miku," said Luka, her mouth slightly gaping open, "you...you're...you're gorgeous. You're beautiful. Did you know that?"

Miku groaned, but despite that, she was blushing, and she seemed a little pleased, although by what Luka didn't know. "I told you not to do that..."

"You seem happy about it though," said Yukari, sounding rather clueless. "Why didn't you want me to?"

"Luka's going to act like an idiot for hours!" Miku's voice was agitated, although even though she was insulting Luka, Luka didn't mind at all. Miku sounded so wonderful.

"Miku," Luka sighed, happily.

Miku's face turned even redder. "D-don't say my name like that..." she looked away. "It's...it's strange..." Miku looked and sounded so flustered; it made Luka's knees feel weak for some reason.

"Sorry," said Yukari, guiltily. "I don't know the ways of humans very well...even though I read a lot." The sound of Yukari's voice was pure pleasure. Luka couldn't stand it anymore. She fell to the ground, the combined memories and force of all the perfect elf voices and Miku's sweet one in turn overwhelming Luka's mind. There was nothing inside her head but pure auditory bliss.

"Luka!" Luka felt Miku's clothing brush up against her arm, and she shuddered at the sensation. It felt as though she was being blessed. This was too much bliss for one person to carry. Miku and Yukari's perfect visages swam before her vision, briefly, a flicker, and then nothing.

-o-o-o-

"Ugh..." Luka sat up, rubbing her head. She felt bleary, and she looked around, her eyes blinking slowly. It was night. There was a small fire burning, illuminating the darkness around the trio. Luka was lying on a bed of leaves and grass. Sitting next to her was Miku, her head bowed and her eyes closed in sleep. Yukari was sleeping up in a tree; Luka could see one of the elf's feet dangle from her bed in the elm.

Luka looked closely at Miku. She was still beautiful, but she was not as heart-stoppingly beautiful as Luka perceived her to be some time earlier. Luka got up and looked at Yukari. The elf's face still possessed grace and beauty, but it was not as goddess-like as Luka thought it was earlier. Strange. Luka shook her head and blamed it on the stress from the goblin battle. She went over to her sack, which was sitting next to the fire, and took out an apple, biting into it and staring up at the night sky, dotted with stars, forming constellations. There was the north star. Avagrin was to the south. Luka then looked for her birthsign, for fun. There it was, hanging up in the sky - The Fair Maid of Candlemas, a constellation that resembled a snowdrop flower. People born under it were supposed to be hopeful and pure. Luka was unsure about her purity, being a thief and a street rat, but hope...maybe.

Luka stared back at Miku, who looked innocent and peaceful in her sitting sleep, and resolve strengthened Luka's heart. She would bring her to Avagrin and they would see a mage and find the source of Miku's power, and why people were hunting her. Luka would protect her too, as best as she could, but...she twitched her lips up in a sad smile. That fiasco in the cave...Luka had been useless. She had to get stronger, but how? Luka looked around; there was nothing around them but trees. Luka got up and grabbed her short sword and took a few practice swings with it, getting her body used to it, before she stared up at the sleeping elf. Maybe Yukari knew how to use a sword...she had a shortsword too, after all. Maybe Luka could ask her. Even though Yukari was a new addition to their traveling party, she seemed friendly...

Luka put her sword down and looked up at the stars again, trying to find some insight written in them - after all, people always said that destinies were written in the stars. Luka looked as hard as she could, but all she saw were the same constellations. She sighed. The future was still unclear.

-o-o-o-

"Another battalion, taken out," reported the messenger to the man sitting on a luxurious throne. The room the two were in was a vast throne room, richly decorated in gold and scarlet. Tapestries hung down stone walls and elaborately carved angels peered down from the ceiling, gazing at the humans below. If they were alive, they might laugh at all of humanity's foibles, but they were only stone, and whatever thoughts they had were forever unspoken.

"Another one?" the man sitting on the throne said, his voice tired, drawn. He was an old man, face etched with the worries of years. He was dressed in elaborate, heavy robes and had on his head a crown that seemed ready to slide off his liver spotted head at any moment. His shoulders were slumped, head down. A defeated man, it seemed - looking at him now, no one would be able to tell that in his youth he had been a roaring, ferocious warrior, a man who carved a bloody swath to Elphegort and took it back from the raiders and demonborn.

The messenger licked his lips nervously. "Yes, your majesty. The Harbinger's memories, purpose, and powers hadn't yet awakened, but in times of danger..."

"...the slumbering power awakens, briefly," the man finished, wearily. "I know." He put his head in his hands.

"What should we do?" asked a younger man, standing next to the king. He was a lean youth with blonde hair and blue eyes, dressed in official-looking clothes with gold threads running through scarlet fabric, though his eyes were wide and his face was pale with stress. "Why can't we wage a public war against it?"

The man on the throne shook his head. "The reasons should be obvious, Len. Public unrest, civil disorder, and of course, you have those who will refuse to believe that the Harbinger is real, or that it will take on the form of a young girl. The Harbinger is cunning. It knows how to use its appearance...in the end, we will be the ones who are in the wrong."

The blonde, Len, looked down at his boot-clad feet, seemingly in thought. "But Father, we can't just let the Harbinger be, otherwise..."

"I know!" the man on the throne yelled, his voice for an instant regaining power and majesty, before shrinking down to a quiet whisper. "I know. But this is all we can do. Perhaps we should try a different tactic..."


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning, Luka was awoken by a hand shaking her shoulder, roughly. Groaning Luka curled up a little more.

"Five more minutes," Luka mumbled, sleepily.

"Luka, we need to move quickly," Miku's voice.

With a grunt, Luka forced her eyes open. It was morning, and some fog clouded the tops of the trees. The sky was a cloudy gray. Luka was lying on her bed of leaves and grass, and though the smell of dirt was the strongest here, Luka could faintly detect the smell of...

Luka immediately sat up. "Food! There's food?"

Miku nodded. "Yes. Yukari's making some."

Luka directed her gaze over towards Yukari, and for a brief moment she could not recognize her until she remembered that Miku and Luka had picked her up on their journey to Avagrin after Marlon was...was...Luka's brow creased and she quickly shook her head. She would not think of such things now. The death and destruction of her home village was something that she would have to live with, and at very least, she had Miku.

Yukari smiled uncertainly at Luka. The elf was crouched, staring at the food - eggs from the looks of it - cooking nicely on top of a hot rock. Luka wasn't sure how Yukari heated the rock, but it seemed like an essential survival skill. Luka opened her mouth to ask Yukari about it before she remembered her behavior yesterday, at the elf village, and almost immediately she blushed. She had acted so...so moonstruck. So foolish, gaping at all the elves and constantly praising Yukari's beauty. Miku didn't act like that...Luka must've looked exceptionally stupid in front of her.

"Hey," said Luka, sheepishly, raising a hand. "Good morning, Yukari."

"Good morning, Luka," said Yukari, lightly. "Right now we're waiting for the food to finish, so..."

"Oh," said Luka, quickly, "it smells good! How did you heat up the rock?"

"Very slowly," the elf explained. "There is water inside rocks, and if you heat them up too quick, they explode. Last night I heated up some rocks next to a fire, though, you were asleep when Miku and I prepared it."

Luka blushed. "Oh. About that, yesterday, I know I was acting really...strangely, but I'm not like that usuall-"

"You were glamored," said Miku.

Luka looked at Miku, puzzled. "Glamored?"

"Elves give off this sort of constant glamor," Miku explained, obligingly. "Most people who aren't used to it act like you did, yesterday. All lovestruck and moony."

Luka suddenly remembered that yesterday Miku seemed even more beautiful than usual, and almost immediately her blush deepened. For some reason she couldn't quite look Miku in the eye. Not only had she failed entirely to protect her in the cave yesterday, she proved herself to be even more of an idiot when she fell so easily under the thrall of the elvish glamor. Luka's fingers toyed with the hilt of her sheathed shortsword and remembered her promise to protect Miku. She had to live up to that promise...which meant that she had to learn how to defend herself with the sword first, so that she could defend Miku again when the time comes.

"I see," said Luka. "Sounds useful."

"It is," said Miku, her voice low, "but sometimes glamor cannot overpower hate..." There was that pained look in Miku's eyes again and Luka knew instantly that she was thinking about the attack on the Crypton Tower. Luka's heart ached for the girl, thrown out of her safe and sheltered world into the cold and heartless world of the lowborn. Luka swore to protect her, but how could a mere street rat protect a noble of the Crypton Tower? Still..she had to try.

"The food is ready," said Yukari, and Luka and Miku walked over to her and sat down. Yukari carefully handed them the food on smooth rocks, and with no utensils, Luka ate with her hands. It didn't bother her unduly since she was well used to eating food without utensils now - stealing forbade such luxuries when teeth, nails, and fingers can do just as well - but she could see that Miku was having some trouble with it, and inwardly she smiled. It was endearing, almost adorable, how Miku struggled with this simple task. The elf, on the other hand, somehow managed to eat her food without utensils with enough grace to leave even the king of Elphegort envious.

"So, Yukari," said Luka, conversationally, "you're a princess?"

Yukari nodded. "Yes. As the only daughter of the king of the Nilveri, I will in time take the throne...but that won't be for many years yet. I'm still very young, after all."

Luka couldn't help but to be shocked that in the span of a few weeks she went from being nothing more than a poor street rat to a...poor homeless street rat, except now, a poor homeless street rat who knew not only a noble of the Crypton Tower, but also, the princess of the Nilveri. Luka reined in her awe, though, and tried to keep her voice light and conversational.

"Then, how old are you?" Luka asked, figuring that to be a good topic.

Yukari blushed, her ears drooping a little as she looked down. "I am only a hundred and twelve," Yukari admitted. "Only barely past the age of a child."

Luka grinned. "Well, I'm seventeen. It you convert elf years to human years, then we're the same age, aren't we?"

Yukari looked a little surprised before she smiled at Luka. "I suppose we are. So why are you two traveling? Are you new adventurers?"

At that, Luka looked down at her sandaled feet, and Miku put the rock down, carefully, next to her. Luka didn't really want to think about the event that led her to this journey - it was too soon, far too soon to talk about it without bursting into tears - but Miku spoke in her stead.

"We aren't adventuring out of choice," said Miku. "I...I was part of the Crypton Tower. A noble, even! But..." Miku's voice trembled. "But then soldiers came, and...and they razed it. I just barely escaped with my life. And then, I fled to the city of Marlon, where I met Luka," Miku gestured at Luka. "But...then the same soldiers came, in search of me, and...here we are."

Luka noticed how Miku neglected to mention the fact that she had killed all the soldiers herself, with some horribly destructive magic power, but Luka could understand why. Neither of them wanted to scare Yukari too much. The girl was fresh-faced and innocent and Luka did not want to ruin that. Neither, it seemed, did Miku.

Yukari looked strangely awed by Miku's concise summary. "That's terrible," she breathed. "You poor...poor humans...how could people do things like that?"

Miku sniffled a little. "I...I don't know," she admitted, miserably. The strain of previous events seemed to be getting to her and quickly Luka put her hand on Miku's shoulder, trying to lend her some psychic support. Miku looked over at Luka's, eyes wide with shock, before relaxing a little and taking a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself.

"So now we're traveling to Avagrin," said Luka, picking up the thread. "We want to see if there's anyone who might know something, anyone who might want to help us...Avagrin's the city of magic, after all."

Yukari nodded in understanding. "I see...but, do you two have any means of protection? Miku...you seem defenseless, and Luka...well...your skill with the sword is a little..." she paused here. "A little...unpolished."

Luka smiled wryly. "Don't mince words. I know I'm not good. I've never swung a sword in my life before. But...but I have to learn how to fight. I have to protect Miku. It's...she was thrown into this world, all alone, you know? I...I can't leave her alone, especially now. I promised to help her when she first met, and I'm going to keep that promise. And Miku's not totally defenseless! She knows some magic."

For some reason, when Luka finished talking and looked over at Miku to give her a reassuring smile, Miku was blushing. After a brief silence, Yukari spoke up again.

"Well," she said, smiling gently, "I can teach you how to use the sword, a little. I'm far from the best swordswoman but I know enough to help you down the road, so that you won't be in another situation as unfortunate as the one you found yourselves in yesterday. Also," she paused, briefly, "we should get moving. Avagrin is still a ways away from here."

"Oh," Luka stammered, getting to her feet, "of course. About the teaching...when do we start?"

"We can start whenever you want," said Yukari.

-o-o-o-

"So I hold it like...this?" Luka asked, anxiously looking at her hands. She was standing with her feet slightly apart, her right hand holding the shortsword lightly. "And then I thrust it?"

Yukari was perched on a nearby rock, watching Luka. The party had been traveling through the forest for a few days now, and Luka for a few times feared that they were lost, but Yukari reassured her that she knew the forests very well, and well...if one can't trust an elf who was born and raised in these woods, then who could one trust?

"Yes," said Yukari. "Though, you need to put more power in your thrust. The sword you're holding seems designed to be used with a shield. Do you not have one?"

Luka blushed. "Ah...no...it didn't really occur to me at the time," she admitted. "But I can slash this sword around too, right?" she made a few theatrical slashing gestures in the air.

Yukari shook her head. "You need to pay more attention to economy of movement. Don't waste time moving your arms around in big swooping gestures like so, if a flick of a wrist can do the same." Yukari stood up and pulled out her own sword. "Pay attention to my movements," Yukari said, and she first moved the blade around in heavy, ponderous swipes, before straightening up and swinging the sword around so fast Luka could barely see where the sword was - it was a blur of metal.

"Oh," Luka stammered, looking down at her own sword. She tried to swing it around with the same grace as Yukari, but she failed, and felt awkward and ungainly too, while she was at it. Luka scowled at the sword, frustration mounting in her. Damn it. How could she protect Miku if she can't even swing her sword right? Maybe she just wasn't cut out for this sword fighting stuff...all Luka knew, after all, was how to run and how to steal.

"You're using too much force in your movements," said Yukari. "Relax. Breathe in and out."

Luka closed her eyes, willed her muscles to relax. Her grip on the sword slackened, a little. As she raised the sword for another swing, she heard, slightly to the right, the rustle of bushes. Immediately Luka's eyes shot open and she looked over to the right, tensing, but to her relief it was only Miku.

"The food is ready," said Miku.

"Oh!" said Luka, happily. She was pretty hungry. "What is it?"

"How much food do we have left?" asked Yukari.

Miku bit her lip. "We still have some turnips, cheese, onions, and bread. It's enough for a few more days. How long will it take until we arrive at Avagrin?"

"We should arrive there in two days," said Yukari.

"We have enough food then," said Miku, visibly relieved.

Luka put her sword back in its scabbard and ran past Miku, following her nose. The food was pretty simple, a stew made of turnips, onions, and potatoes, but it was delicious to Luka's taste-starved tongue. After so many years of feeding on stale food, freshly cooked things were a delicacy to Luka, and she wasn't about to start complaining now. She grabbed a sturdy-looking leaf and carefully put some of the stew on it. It was piping hot, and Luka smiled. Simple pleasures.

"How was the lesson?" asked Miku, who was sitting next to Luka now. Yukari was sitting across from the two, carefully eating the food.

Luka swallowed a mouthful of stew and smiled at Miku. "It was good! I'm still bad at sword fighting, but I'm doing my best!"

"Good," said Miku. "You..." a flush of red appeared on Miku's cheeks and she looked down at the ground. "You...you're going to...you have to protect me after all, right?"

"Yup! I'm going to protect you!" Luka said, proudly.

The two of them continued their journey after that, Luka receiving frequent lessons in swordfighting that always resulted in her arms feeling leaden and tired by the end of the day. Yukari said that she was getting better, but if there was any improvement, Luka couldn't see it. In her mind's eye she battled the same skeletons and goblins as she did in the cave, and every time, she failed to defeat them.

The last day of their journey to Avagrin was a hot one, the sun beaming down on the party, making sweat slide down Luka's forehead, sticking her clothes to her body. The three of them were at least on a public road now, however, having just got on it an hour ago. There was a comfort in walking down a paved road - a comfort of people and of civilization. Yukari was rather excited about it, actually, talking on and on about humans and how wonderful it was to finally visit a human city, and not only that, but a city of magic, Avagrin!

"I had only been to the outskirts of it," Yukari confessed, "when Mew brought me along on scouting expeditions."

"Oh, the strict-looking elf lady?" Luka asked. "What'd you two scout out for? There's not much interesting on the outskirts of a town! To really get things, you have to be in them!"

Yukari nodded. "I know! And today's going to be my first time!" she was smiling, her ears perked up. The heat barely seemed to affect her. "And we were scouting for weapons, seeing if the humans are preparing for war...things of that sort."

"It's...so hot.." Miku mumbled. Her eyes were half-lidded and she moved in slow, shambling steps, her face flushed. "It was never this hot in the Tower! The Lower World really is an uncivilized place...even bathing in the same rivers where waste is dumped in...germs everywhere..."

"But Miku, you don't get sick from germs," Luka said. "You get sick from humor imbalances! Everyone knows that."

Miku stared at Luka for a long while, eyebrow raised, before shaking her head. "No, Luka. No."

Luka frowned. "Wh-what? That's what the doctor always says..." Luka cleared her throat and stood up straight, delivering a fine rendition of the doctor's creaky voice. "Luka, you must understand that everything in our body is composed of the four humors, and if one humor is imbalanced, that causes the sickness in your body..."

"Do you believe this too?" Miku asked Yukari.

Yukari looked puzzled. "Us elves commune with nature in order to cleanse our body of impurities when we become sick..."

Miku sighed and shook her head. "Nevermind..."

The three of them walked on like that for a while, until they heard the creak of wagon wheels from behind them. Luka snapped her head up and looked behind her, years of thievery making her alert, and saw a plain wooden wagon being drawn by a brown horse, hooves clip clopping down the road. Sitting in the narrow driver's seat was a person wearing a large brimmed hat.

"Hey, maybe we can hitch a ride!" Luka said to Yukari and Miku, seeing in this wagon rider a chance for some respite from walking.

"Oh!" Yukari's ears perked up even more. "I have always wanted to ride in a real wagon!"

"Is that okay, Miku?" Luka turned her attention to Miku.

Miku scowled. "O-of course! Anything to get out of this endless walking...I've never walked so much in my life."

Luka hailed the rider and obligingly the rider slowed the horse down, pulling on its reins a little. The wagon creaked to a stop in front of the party. Looking at the rider now, Luka could note that she had rather blue eyes under that wide brimmed hat. The rest of the rider's features were concealed by shadow, and also by a large red scarf that covered half the rider's face. It was a wonder how the rider could stand being so bundled up in such hot weather.

"Are you going to Avagrin?" Luka asked, smiling winningly, or so she hoped.

The rider nodded, cautiously, eyes still warily fixed on the three of them.

"Can we please ride on your wagon?" asked Yukari, clapping her hands together, her ears practically straight up now. "It's so hot today, so it is uncomfortable to walk...my companions too are rather tired, as we have been walking for almost a week to reach Avagrin..." Yukari paused here before suddenly speaking up again, the words flowing out in a rush, "and also, I really really want to ride in a wagon just once please?"

"Yeah," Luka picked up the thread, "my companion here is an elf, you see, and she really wants to see the world of humans. Could you please spare us three poor wandering travelers the privilege of traveling in your wonderful wagon of...wonders?"

The rider stared at the three of them, arching a blonde eyebrow, before shrugging, nodding, and pointing to the back of the wagon. After an excited chorus of thanks, Miku, Luka, and Yukari piled themselves into the back of the wagon. It was empty, save for one or two crates. While the sun still beat down on them, it felt nice to rest their legs after a while, and after a click from the rider the wagon was moving its way down the road again. The creak of it was almost comforting, and Luka felt her eyes grow heavy.

"Hey, Yukari...Miku," Luka mumbled, "I'm going to take a rest for a while, okay? Wake me up when we get there."

"Okay," said Miku, and Luka shut her weary eyes.

-o-o-o-

Luka was shaken awake by Miku and when she opened her eyes she saw that she was inside a city. Buildings were all around her, made of brick and stone, some shambling and leaning against each other, others standing tall and haughty. The cart had stopped and Luka quickly got off the cart, her sandaled feet landing on cobblestone, and she ran over to the front in order to thank the mysterious rider.

"Thank you so much!" Luka blurted out to the rider, who was getting off the wagon.

The rider took off her hat, pulled down her scarf. Long, messy blonde hair practically billowed down to her waist, bangs practically in her face before she brushed it away. She looked vaguely amused.

"It's no problem," said the rider. Yukari was standing next to her, looking rather awestruck as she gazed in wonder at the buildings all around her. "Your elf friend kept me company up on the bench. Said you two were looking for help here, is that right?"

Luka blinked, surprised that Yukari had told the rider so much about the three of them already. "A-ah...yeah, actually. We're looking to see why people are after my friend...Miku."

The rider looked at Miku. "Hm. Doesn't look like the kind of girl who'd provoke an entire army badly enough to want to kill her. I do know a fair bit of magic though, and I heard you two were looking for someone who knows some."

Luka was happy at having found some help so quick, but at the same time, she was suspicious, not to mention, protective of Miku. She discreetly moved a little closer to Miku, providing a modicum of protection. However, she kept her face easygoing, kept her voice light. "Oh yeah? That's really convenient! So...what's your name?"

"Lily," said the girl, briefly. "Lily Masuda. I'm an engineer, mostly. I make toys and such, in my spare time and sell them to people."

"A toymaker?" Luka asked, eyes widening. "Wow, that's amazing! Do you have any I can take a look at?"

Lily shrugged. "It's simple enough, making toys. Nothing to be impressed with, it's not my main area of expertise you might say. Good to see people happy with it, but it's more of a hobby. Anyways, if you'd like I could take you two down to the shop and show you."

"Ah, that sounds great," said Luka, smiling. "Though, why're you so quick to...you know, trust us? I know we look pretty suspicious..."

"I spent a lot of time talking with Yukari while you two were asleep," said Lily. "I think I can trust you two. The fact that you hadn't taken advantage of someone as innocent as her is proof enough, I think. And anyways, I doubt you could beat me in combat."

Luka gaped at her. "H-huh? What makes you think I can't?"

"Just the way you stand," said Lily. "It's pretty obvious."

Luka's eyebrow twitched a little. This girl was really blunt...not only that, but Luka didn't really want her capabilities to be so obviously put down in front of Miku. Luka glanced over at her, nervously, checking her reaction, but Miku was looking around the city and apparently not paying attention to their conversation.

"Well...I'm not really experienced with the sword I guess," Luka mumbled. "I'm learning though. Anyways...well, we just want you to like...do you know anything about the fall of the Crypton Tower and the burning of Marlon?"

"I think," said Lily, "we should talk about this sort of thing in more private places."

"C-can we look around the city first?" Yukari asked, hopefully glancing at Lily, Miku, and Luka. Her purple eyes were pleading. "It's my first time here and I want to look around..."

Luka swallowed. For some reason, Yukari was pretty hard to resist when she looked so hopeful, her eyes wide and lips faintly smile-touched. "Well, it's fine with me! I've never been to Avagrin either. Would you like to look around, Miku?"

Miku glanced around, blue eyes nervous. "Oh...okay."

Lily shrugged. "I have no problem with it. I just need to stable my horse and whatnot and then I'll take you three around."

Yukari's cheer was loud enough to make some passerbys stop and stare.

-o-o-o-

Lily took the three around, showing them the ever-crowded shopping district, where Luka resisted the urge to steal from the crowded stalls, her fingers itchy in her pockets, the craftsmen district, and even the front of one of the many mages' towers, where intense mages worked on their work. Luka thought she could see multicolored flashes through the windows, high high up.

"It's so tall," Luka whispered, awed.

Miku sniffed. "The Crypton Tower was taller."

Lily then took them to the city square, where there were a few scattered stalls and people sitting on benches, and then to the outside of the theater, which was closed that day, and then to the church.

"Want to go in?" Lily asked. "I think there's a service."

Luka nodded frantically. She was pretty religious, despite being a thief, though she very rarely went to church and was curious to see what the inside of a church in a big city looked like. Yukari looked curious herself, and Miku looked...well, apathetic, so Lily quietly led them in, where they sat in one of the back pews. The church had beautiful stained glass on the sides depicting classic scenes spoken of in services, and was built of ponderous gray stone that looked as though it's been there for as long as time. It smelled slightly smoky inside - incense, Luka figured. The priest was standing at the altar, preaching.

"And when the time comes, the Harbinger will be born," he intoned. "Bringing death and destruction when it awakens after its slumber, signaling the end of the world. Blood will rain from the skies, locusts will consume the crops. Only the pure will be saved from the suffering of the apocalypse..."

Luka shuddered as she listened to that. She knew that as a thief, she was far from being pure. She looked down at her hands, ruefully, and hoped that the time of the Harbinger won't be for a good time yet. The priest went on, speaking of the end of the world, and it was with a disconsolate air when Luka and her companions exited the church.

"That was amazing!" Yukari enthused. "Such elaborate stories to explain natural phenomena...us elves believe that a spirit resides in every piece of nature, you see...it seems as though our belief systems are quite different! Though we also have a Harbinger-like figure in our stories, it's referred to as the Kalavikar."

"I hope the Harbinger won't be born for a long time yet," Luka mumbled. "I don't want the world to end."

Lily scoffed. "If you ask me, I doubt it will ever be born. Just bunk cooked up to make us fearful."

"The Cryptonites always believed that in order to cleanse the world of filth, the world must be reborn," Miku spoke up. "So the Harbinger was always a positive force. Because the Lower World is so dirty."

Luka shivered. "E-either way, I don't want any Harbinger around. Rebirth or not, cleansing or not, I just want to live, you know?"

Miku looked at Luka, oddly. "Everyone wants to live," she said. "The problem is that some people don't deserve to."


	6. Chapter 6

Luka looked around the toy shop, eyes wide with wonder. There were carefully painted figurines lined up against the wall, colorful puppets of boys, girls, dragons, horses, and other such things hanging down from the ceiling, tin soldiers...never before had Luka seen such a wealth of entertainments. Marlon had only a single toy stall run by a grumpy old man who apparently hated children, so Luka never really had the chance to play with toys in her youth. Lily was yawning a little as she leaned back against the wooden counter.

"So...this is your shop?" Luka asked.

Lily gave Luka a dour look. "No, it's the baker's. Of course it's mine. Though I don't come here very often. I usually get my assistant to run things while I travel around selling less somewhat less frivolous things."

"The craftsmanship on this is really detailed..." Yukari sounded awed as she gazed at a figurine of a fisherman fishing in a perfectly rendered lake. It was obviously somewhat enchanted as the waters moved and little puffs of smoke emitted from the fisherman's pipe from time to time, his boat gently swaying in the water. "Amazing, I didn't know humans could do this! This isn't frivolous at all!"

"Where's your assistant?" Miku asked. She had picked up a toy soldier and was examining it carefully, her fingers turning it over in her hands.

"At home, probably," said Lily. "The store is closed today." She sat on the counter now. "But anyways, let's get back to business. I know a little about the fall of the Crypton Tower and the burning of Marlon. News travels."

"What do you know?" Luka asked, looking around for someplace to sit too but seeing no chairs, so she resigned herself to standing. "Do you know who...who sent the troops?"

Lily frowned a little, resting her chin on her hand. "Sadly, no. The soldiers aren't bearing any shields or arms that would indicate an allegiance with any one faction. Whoever's sending people after Miku doesn't want to be found. However, it has to be a large, powerful organization, since apparently...Miku has been attacked twice by the same people, both with the same numbers. I have heard though that Marlon is a graveyard now. Even the soldiers are dead..."

Luka cringed and glanced over at Miku, who was biting her lip, and then over at Yukari, whose eyes widened.

"What?" Yukari stammered. "Even the soldiers? Who could've killed them? There aren't any survivors?"

Lily shook her head. "None, except for, well...these two here. All sorts of theories are flying around about that now. Some people say it's the mark of the Harbinger, other people say that it was a freak magic accident, and yet others say that it's a neighboring country who wants to try to invade us..."

"Is the king doing anything?" Luka asked, hopefully. Maybe the king would quell these soldiers, so that Miku could live peacefully. There was no way the fall of the Crypton Tower would be simply ignored by the king after all...

Lily sighed. "He's making several speeches about it but it doesn't look like he wants to amass troops yet. He says we have to move cautiously in this, and that he'll send out diplomats to other countries to see if any of them is harboring hostile intent."

Luka frowned. "Oh..."

"Who could've killed the soldiers?" Yukari repeated, looking slightly dazed, and Luka's heart lurched at that. She wished she had just told Yukari that Miku had the power now, instead of hiding it. Biting her lip Luka looked down at the floor. It didn't seem like the king wanted to do anything about it, and Luka knew that the soldiers would come again, somewhere in her gut. And if Lily could tell that Luka was so inexperienced simply by looking at her, how could Luka possibly protect Miku?

"I...I killed them," Miku said, her voice soft, eyes slightly glassy as she stared at the tin soldier she was holding in her hand. "I...I don't know what happened, but...Luka and I were surrounded by them, we were about to die, and then I felt some thing inside me...like...a great power just swelling up and exploding out of me and the next thing I knew...all the soldiers were dead."

"Oh," Yukari stammered, her eyes wide, and for a moment Luka was afraid that she was going to back away from the two of them. However, the elf threw her arms around Miku instead. Miku gasped and stiffened a little at that, obviously unused to being hugged. "That's terrible, Miku...are you okay? It sounds so...frightening and traumatic. I've heard that sometimes, humans have a hard time controlling their magic in their youth, especially if they're talented, so..."

Miku trembled a little. "But I was already taught some magic, I can control it! Back then, it was...a lot more magic...I didn't even know I had that much..."

"Maybe your Crypton teachers didn't tap fully into your potential," Lily pointed out. "Teachers sometimes withhold knowledge from their students in magic until they're older and could control everything more. I've never heard of anyone having magic so destructive as to kill a whole battalion of soldiers, however..."

Luka felt a little lost amongst all this talk of magic - she herself didn't have a drop of magic in her body, and even if she did she was far too old to start learning it now. Most mages begin training at three, or five at the latest. Luka walked over to the shelves and started busying herself with winding up a cymbal-banging monkey as Miku, Yukari, and Lily talked about magic, keeping an ear out for anything important.

"Maybe she's just really talented!" Yukari offered.

Lily's voice was troubled. "Maybe so, but no one really knows how to use such destructive area of effect magic abilities until they're older and more experienced, and even then, it's not enough to kill an entire battalion."

"So...what you are all saying is that...I'm a freak," Miku's voice, disconsolate and sounding dangerously close to tears. Luka's heart ached at that and she wanted to turn and hug her, but she couldn't help but to remember how touchy Miku was about these things, and Yukari was already hugging her anyways. Luka looked down at her hands, dirt-browned, and sighed. She should really wash up. She wondered if there was a river near Avagrin she could use for bathing.

"Don't put words in my mouth," said Lily. "I'm only saying that a case like this hadn't ever occurred before-"

There was the sound of rough knocking on the door. Luka froze and her hand nervously crept to the hilt of her blade before she looked over at Lily, helplessly. Miku was stiff, eyes wide as she stared at the door, and Yukari let go of her and stepped back. The atmosphere in the room suddenly became incredibly tense.

"The bill collector?" Luka offered, in an attempt to lighten the air.

"I already paid it for this month," said Lily, slowly. She walked over to the door and opened it.

Framed in the door was a man dressed in plate armor, a sword strapped behind his back along with a shield. Luka's knees suddenly felt watery and she dashed over to Miku, quickly standing in front of her. That soldier was unmarked, unadorned, and while it could just be an adventurer looking for shelter, Luka was far too wary for that now. His dress looked exactly like those of the soldiers who invaded Marlon.

"Yes?" said Lily, her voice flat and bored.

"We know you're harboring someone who looks like this," the man stated, holding up a detailed rendering of Miku. "She is very dangerous. Step aside."

"What authority do you have to barge into my house?" Lily asked. "Who do you work for?"

Luka could feel Miku trembling behind her, and quietly she took a few steps backwards, wanting to hide. However, it was too late - the man had already spotted them and without answering he shoved Lily aside and ran in, his sword unsheathing with a sharp, metallic sound. To Luka's horror, she saw two more soldiers, wearing the same unmarked garb, walk into the shop, closing the door behind them.

"Give up the girl," said the man advancing towards Luka, "and we'll leave the rest of you alone."

Luka could feel Miku clutch onto her, for protection. Luka's hand slowly clutched the hilt of her blade, suddenly feeling very, very inexperienced. The man before her looked like a capable fighter. Luka was, she realized, trembling.

"W-well," Luka stammered, "I...I d-don't know why you want her, but I'm not letting you take Miku." That said, she drew her sword, held it the way Yukari told her to, and stared at the man, who for all intents and purposes looked like Death himself.

The man rolled his eyes. "Are you sure about this? I could very easily kill you and take the girl anyways. Don't waste your life."

"She's my friend!" Luka yelled. "I'm not letting you take her!"

The man's eyes narrowed. "Are you so trapped in her illusions that you think she's a friend? She's not a friend of anyone. She deserves to die."

Luka was appalled, a black pit of horror in her stomach. How could people think that about Miku? Sure...she was selfish sometimes, and haughty, and she had this outrageously large magic power, but...she doesn't deserve death. She doesn't deserve death at all. "She doesn't! Get away!" Luka slashed at him with the sword but the man easily blocked it.

"Well," the man said, reflectively, "I suppose you'll find out the truth in the afterlife..." He raised his sword, and as Luka raised her own in an attempt to block it, there was the sound of a large bang. The man stiffened, eyes wide, before they rolled up, and he fell over on the ground in a crash. Luka gaped at him, sword still raised in her hands.

"D-did you do that?" she asked Miku.

"No," said Lily. "I did."

Luka looked up to see that the other two soldiers were lying facedown on the floor. Lily was holding in her hand a strange-looking device, smoking from the hole on its end that was facing at the soldier. It was short and small, and Luka had never seen anything like it. It looked like a small cannon, and Luka stared at it.

"What's that?" Luka stammered.

Lily put the object away in her jacket. "Something of my own invention. Very new, very experimental. It uses magical force and-or explosive powder provided by the user to propel a projectile with a large amount of force at a target. I developed some projectiles to match it too."

Luka stared at the girl in awe. This girl was no ordinary engineer. Miku had stopped trembling now, and was looking at Lily with curiosity, although her eyes, Luka noted, still showed some fear, and she was still stiff, a little.

"It's okay, Miku," Luka told her, softly. "It's okay...and that's really impressive, Lily."

"We should go," said Yukari, her voice nervous as her lilac eyes darted about. "There are more soldiers, I can...I can hear them."

Lily's eyes widened. "Ah. There's a backdoor...come on, let's get out through there."

Luka, Miku, and Yukari hardly needed encouragement as they hurried out the store. When they got out the smoke was already thick in the air as the shop burned.

-o-o-o-

"We heard that you are the best."

There was no answer from the darkness.

Swallowing, Prince Len stepped forward, holding in his hand a large sum of gold. "Surely you've heard about the Harbinger."

"Fairy tales."

"No," said the prince. "I wish it was, but no. Have you not heard of what happened in Marlon? A full battalion of soldiers...dead. We sent them after the Harbinger, and none of them survived. Now we're thinking that...that our forces are perhaps...too unsubtle. We sent five more, after, in Avagrin. Only two men survived. They burned the shop down, but there was no one inside, save the charred bodies of our own men."

"I see. Why did you come to me, then?"

"I want you to capture the Harbinger," said the prince. "Her sleeping power only manifests when on the brink of death. Capture her and bring her to the castle. According to our men, she's with three others...all impressionable young girls, from the looks of it. One an elf. They are fully under her thrall. Capture her any way you can. Capture the others, too. We don't want them staging a rescue attempt. Don't kill them, either. We do not want the elves even angrier at us than they are already."

"So all I have to do is capture four little girls?" the voice sounded vaguely insulted and Midir gulped.

"One of the girls is the Harbinger," he said. "She killed a battalion of men. Single-handedly."

"I don't believe in the Harbinger. Still...gold is gold. How much will you pay me for this?"

The prince nervously tossed the bag of coins on the table. It landed heavily. "There'll be more, after you bring in the four. If you want, we could also...we could also provide you with some allies. Our top men."

There was a brief silence as the hunter considered.

"I'll do it," she said, standing up. "Where were they last seen?"

"Running out of Avagrin," said Len.

The hunter nodded, her brown eyes seeming to glow in the dark as she thought. "I understand."

-o-o-o-

The four of them had been riding fast out of Avagrin on Lily's wagon, bouncing through rough roads as the single, overpowering urge to run gnawed at them all. Lily's shop was burned down now, it seemed, and as it was her home...she could not stay in Avagrin any longer. The soldiers would undoubtedly be watching the area, so the four of them had to run.

Luka felt black guilt claw inside her as she sat in the back of the wagon with Miku. Thanks to her and Miku...Lily had lost her home, her shelter, forced to accompany the three of them on a helter-skelter journey for safety. The worst part, Luka thought, was that there was no way for them to know when it would be over. Every bush, every tree, it seemed, was brimming with enemies. Miku herself was trembling, head buried in her chest-drawn knees. Luka looked at her and she felt even more miserable than she did already.

"Miku," Luka said, softly.

Miku looked up, her blue eyes wide, teary, and frightened as she stared at Luka. "I'm...I'm just going to keep running forever, aren't I? They won't stop..."

Luka swallowed and hesitantly crawled a little closer to Miku, almost losing her balance as the wagon lurched. "Hey...you're not alone. You have me. I said that I'd protect you, right?" Luka tried to smile. She couldn't quite do it, but she hoped the darkness of night covered that well enough. "I'll do my best to become the best swordfighter ever. I won't let them get you."

Miku looked at Luka for a bit before she looked back down. "But...what if I really do deserve to die? Remember earlier, in the shop? No one...no one ever had as much power as I did...what if I'm something wrong, what if I'm not...what if I'm some kind of monster, or a freak, or a demon, what if I-"

"Hey," Luka said, alarmed, and before she knew it she had Miku's hands clasped tight in her own. They were cold and Luka tried her best to heat them up with her own hands. "Don't say things like that. You're not a monster, Miku. You don't deserve to die...no one does. You can't help having these powers, right? You just need to learn to control them, and I'll bet you'll be the best mage in the world if you did! You don't deserve to die, Miku. You're my...you're my friend."

Miku stared at Luka for a long moment, and Luka smiled back at her, tried to give her some strength as she held Miku's hands securely in her own. Then, the tears started to come again and Miku looked down and sniffled. "Th-thank you, Luka...I just...I just cause trouble wherever I am...at the Tower, and at Marlon, and in Avagrin too, I...I just..."

"You can't help it," Luka soothed. "You can't. It's okay. It's not...we'll beat them, Miku. We will. We can do it."

Miku's lips were trembling, eyes scared, and before Luka knew it she had thrown her arms around the girl, brought her close to her in a hug. Miku felt so fragile in Luka's arms - so easily breakable. Why would anyone want to go after a girl like her? It must all be one big misunderstanding. Luka hoped they could work it out, somehow. Luka hoped they wouldn't have to run forever. She didn't know if her hopes were possible, but she still hoped. Miku slowly, slowly relaxed in Luka's arms before hesitantly hugging back, burying her face in Luka's shoulder. She was so cold...Luka rubbed her back, tried to warm her up as she spoke, over and over, a simple litany of words, almost meaningless, but it held enough comfort for the two of them to get them through - just 'it's okay, it's okay', said softly, over and over.

-o-o-o-

"I'm sorry about your shop, Lily..." Miku said, quietly the next morning when the party stopped to eat.

Lily closed her eyes, a slight crease in her brow. "Mm. Good thing I make the bulk of my money through traveling, but..." she frowned. "My workshop..."

Yukari was quiet, downcast as she ate. "Where do we go now?"

Luka looked down. "We have to find out who's coming after Miku." Her voice was hard with determination. "That way, we can stop running."

Lily scoffed. "All we have are unidentified soldiers. There's not a single lead to find."

"We count on people to find out for us," said Luka. "There's no way...no way all this can happen without someone noticing. The king might not be doing anything but people can put things together on their own, can't they? We'll find out something." Her fingers toyed irritably with the hilt of her sword. It seemed to have become a habit, now. "I need to become better at fighting, too."

"There's going to be more killing?" Yukari asked, quietly.

Luka took a deep breath. "As long as the soldiers keep coming after us...if we can't escape, if we're about to die, then we have to. It's either kill or die."

"Oh," said Yukari, in a tiny voice. Luka regretted her somewhat harsh words, but from any angle it seemed like the reality of the situation. If all these soldiers are after them, then in order to escape, if they can't run, they have to kill.

"I'm sorry," said Luka, her voice softer now. "But...but it seems like it's the only way."

"What do you think, Miku?" Lily asked.

Miku, startled, looked up at Lily. "I..." Miku swallowed, looked down. "I don't know. I just want it to stop..."

Luka finished her bread. "I say we find the Broker."

"The...Broker?" Yukari and Miku echoed.

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Really? The Broker? No one knows who he is, or where he is."

"We'll find him," said Luka. "If you keep your ear low to the ground, if you hang around in the right places...you're bound to find out something. Back in Marlon, I heard people talk about the Broker, like they knew where he is. They're dead now, but there has to be other people, in other cities."

"Who's the Broker?" Yukari asked.

Lily frowned. "A mysterious figure, really...the top information broker in Elphegort. He knows everything, he has informants everywhere...even the king consults him, or so I heard. But he never gives information away for free. Why would he give information to us? We don't have anything that would tempt him. No money, no nothing."

"Well, we'll find out the price when we find him, and then we pay it," said Luka.

"What part of 'we don't have anything that would tempt him' did you not understand?" said Lily, her voice irritated.

"It's better than running around from city to city, hoping for the best, right?" Luka raised her voice, unknowingly, and Yukari gave a little start. "At least I'm coming up with ideas. What else can you think of, Lily?"

Lily frowned, looked down at the grass. "Well...I can't think of anything, really, but...what I say is still true. We don't have anything to give in exchange for information. And who knows how long it'll take to find out where he is?"

Luka licked her suddenly dry lips. "Well...I'll ask around as often as I can. I grew up on the streets, so...I'm sure I can find out some things. I used to be a good thief too, so if there's information no one's willing to give, then...I can steal that information too, right?"

"How can you steal knowledge?" Yukari asked, eyes wide. "A...mind reading spell?"

"No," said Luka, quietly, eyes fixed on a blade of grass. "Something simpler than that."

There was silence in the glade, for a while. Miku looked between Lily and Luka, nervously.

"Luka..." Miku ventured.

"Yes, Miku?" Luka looked at her, face softening. Miku looked so frightened...Luka had to protect her. Had to.

Miku looked as though she was about to say something, and then, just as quickly, she seemed to have changed her mind. She looked down, blue eyes troubled. "You're going to protect me, right?"

"Miku," Luka stammered, "I...I'll always protect you. We're in this together, remember? You, me, Yukari, even Lily."

"Even Lily?" Lily remarked, voice dry.

"Okay," Miku looked only marginally reassured. The broken, frightened girl before Luka looked so different from the haughty girl she was when Luka first met her in the Marlon market. Luka's heart ached at the sight. She had to make Miku happy, somehow.

Yukari looked up at the sky. "I think...we should go."

-o-o-o-

"Careless," Meiko murmured as she looked at the wagon tracks etched onto the road. "Very careless."

"Wow...so all we do is follow the tracks?" Kaito asked, squinting down the road, as though he could see the Harbinger and all her friends down it. "Then we catch them?"

Meiko straightened up and frowned. "It might be a trap. This trail...is exceedingly obvious."

Kaito sighed and leaned on his longsword. "Well, it's the only one we have, right? We can take them on! I'm the top ranked swordsman in the army."

Meiko rolled her eyes. "If the prince is right, then the girl we're after is the Harbinger. We shouldn't be too aggressive. We should...lure them into security."

"Lure them into security?" Kaito echoed.

Meiko nodded. "Take off your plate armor. We're going to look like civilians."


	7. Chapter 7

Luka hopped out of the wagon as Lily drew it to a stop inside the town of Laguar. Though it wasn't as large as the city of Avagrin, it was a bustling, colorful place with bright buildings and people dressed in greens and blues and scarlets. Streamers flew in the air and there were stalls set up everywhere, the owners all loudly advertising their goods. Apparently there was a festival going on. The thought of this, however, did not give Luka any comfort. It felt as though there were soldiers behind her shoulder, every time she looked, and it seemed like Miku wasn't feeling very good either, her blue eyes wide with anxiety as she glanced around the square. Yukari, on the other hand, looked rather awed.

"So much festivity!" she breathed. "I've never seen humans making so much merry."

Lily's lip quirked at that. "You obviously don't know humans well, then. As a species, I find that we're rather vulnerable to the pleasures of the flesh."

A brief look of disgust passed over Miku's face at that comment. "Too vulnerable. That's why the Cryptonites shut themselves away from the rest of the unclean world."

Luka looked around. "We should find someplace to stay. Lily, do you have any money? I know we don't have enough to tempt the Broker but surely we have enough to purchase a room."

Lily shrugged. "We have enough to purchase a room, but sooner or later the money's going to run out."

"Don't be so pessimistic," said Luka, scowling at her. "So we do, right? And if we ever run out then I'll just steal some!"

"Yay!" Yukari cheered. "We won't have to worry about money, then!"

"Good to see that your morals are still intact," said Lily to Yukari. "Anyways, the Laguar inn is over there," she pointed, and the party pushed through the revelers over to a rather dependable-looking building of stone and wood, with a sign on it that depicted a picture of a fox in a bush. There were words written under it that Luka couldn't quite read.

"The Fox And The Bush," Miku read, and Luka squinted at those words again. For all intents and purposes they may well be scribbles. Luka could read a little - enough to recognize place names - but not enough to read signs. Luka scowled at it. She hated reminders of her illiteracy.

The inside of the inn was full of people - travelers, from the looks of it, lounging about and drinking frothy mugs of beer. As Lily went to buy a room, Luka looked around. So many people losing their senses in alcohol...it would be ridiculously easy to lift more than a few purses here. Luka's fingers were getting itchy again and she stuck them into her pockets. She didn't want to seem like a kleptomaniac, after all, but after such a long time of living on the streets, she developed instincts for this sort of thing. Not only that, but sometimes, getting caught stealing from a drunk person resulted in a beating, something that Luka wasn't eager to get in front of her companions - especially Miku.

Yukari was looking curiously at the mugs of beer that many of the patrons were drinking from. "Luka...what're those?"

"Beer," said Luka. "Popular human drink-"

"Don't drink it, Yukari," Miku interrupted. "It's unclean."

"How can it be popular if it's unclean?" Yukari asked, eyebrows furrowing together.

Luka laughed. "Well, it's not really unclean, but it sure loosens people's tongues."

"It's unclean," said Miku, sourly. "Beer is banned in the Crypton Tower. Fine wine is acceptable to drink in small amounts."

"Eh? But there's some really great beer out there!" Luka said. "Banning beer but not wine, that's a little strange, isn't it?"

"Can I try some?" Yukari asked, looking rather enthusiastic.

Miku gaped at her, looking completely scandalized. "W-w-what?"

"I got us a room," said Lily, walking over. She glanced at Miku, and then at Yukari. "Did I miss something?"

"Lily, could you please buy me one of these human drinks?" Yukari asked, pointing at the bar. "A beer, I think."

"I don't think we should use our precious little finances on intoxicating substances," said Lily. "Especially if we're being chased by soldiers. We need all of our wits around us."

"Aw..." Yukari's ears drooped, but she seemed to see the logic of Lily's statement, so she didn't protest.

"It's okay, Yukari," said Luka, clapping a hand on Yukari's back. "I'll buy you a beer sometime, when all this is over."

-o-o-o-

"This is really nice..." Luka whispered, awed. There was a bed - an actual bed! Not only one bed though; there were two, both covered in a white blankets. There was a window and a wooden table, and the walls were white, with brown poles of wood running up to the arched ceiling. Luka had never seen a room as fine as this one in her life, and the beds looked awfully tempting, a perfect place for her to rest and sleep.

"Really? This is just a normal room," said Lily.

"N-normal?" Luka whirled around to stare at her companions. Lily's eyebrows were furrowed a little in perplexment, Yukari was as always looking around, and Miku looked thoroughly unimpressed. "This is amazing! There's...there's _two_ beds!"

"Ah, speaking of beds," said Lily, completely ignoring what Luka said, "who's going to sleep in which?"

"I call the window!" Luka said, her spirits high at the prospect of actually getting to sleep in a real bed. She practically bounced all the way to the bed closest to the window and flopped down on it, sighing in bliss. It was much cleaner than her dirt-crusted bedroll back in Marlon, and softer too. She heard the others discuss briefly the sleeping arrangements, but she heard only Miku's voice raised in indignant embarrassment before she slipped off to sleep.

-o-o-o-

"They're out cold..." Yukari remarked as she looked over at the peacefully sleeping Luka and Miku.

Lily yawned. "Yes. So tell me, Yukari, what do you think about them?"

"What do I think...?" Yukari blinked at Lily. "Well, I like them...I feel terrible for Miku though, having all these soldiers after her..."

"That power of hers is really strange..." Lily said, softly, staring at her hands. "I've never seen anyone with so much magical power in them. It's unnerving."

"Unnerving?" Yukari asked.

Lily frowned, a little. "All these soldiers have to be after her for a reason, right? It's hard to know if I'm on the right side or not, helping her."

"Luka trusts her," Yukari said, defensively.

Lily laughed. "Luka's practically in love with her. All that swearing to protect her and swordfighting practice...I wonder how they met? But Luka doesn't seem to know why all the soldiers are after Miku too. The only things we know are that she's from the Crypton Tower and that she has some great magical power. Like I said, they have to be after her for a reason...probably because of that magical power of hers, but even so...how would these soldiers know to go after her? How would they know that she lived in the Crypton Tower and attacked there? It makes no sense, since it's so reclusive. No one from the outside has ever been there, you know..."

Yukari wasn't sure what to say to that, and she stared down at her hands.

-o-o-o-

Luka's eyes blinked open, slowly. She had slept for a good while on the bed - it was so comfortable she could hardly believe it. Sighing happily Luka turned around, only to see Miku's sleeping face right before her.

"Ah," Luka gasped despite herself - it was a surprising thing to wake up to. At this distance, Luka could feel Miku's soft breath, could count her eyelashes even. Luka felt her face heat up - Miku really was a beautiful girl. Beautiful, and at the same time, strong. She managed to live through three attacks so far without breaking down, and Luka was determined to see her live through more.

"I'll protect you," Luka whispered to the sleeping Miku, and then she frowned. In order to protect her, she had to learn how to fight well. She remembered how useless she was, how powerless she was when she faced the soldier in Lily's shop, and she scowled at the memory. She had to get better. Rolling out of bed, Luka walked over to the corner where her sword was and unsheathed it, staring at the cool metal. She could see her face reflected in it and hesitantly Luka held it out like Yukari told her to. She took a few deep breaths, tried to loosen her muscles.

There was a knocking on the door. Luka's eyes shot open and she whirled in the direction of the door, sword up, but the people who stepped through it were only Yukari and Lily.

"Whoa, watch where you point that thing," Lily said, holding up her hands.

"We bought pastries!" Yukari said, holding up a basket.

"Oh!" Luka quickly sheathed her sword and ran over to Yukari, looking in the basket. Four muffins - enough for the four of them, at least. Luka picked out a blueberry muffin. "Thanks!"

"No problem," said Lily. "As long as we're in a town, might as well get some real food."

"Yeah," Luka nodded, grinning as she bit into the sweet muffin. "I'm going to wake Miku." She walked over to the bed where Miku was and gently put her hand on Miku's shoulder, giving her a soft shake.

"Whuh?" Miku mumbled, eyes blearily opening.

"Yukari and Lily brought food," Luka said, holding up the muffin and smiling at Miku. She looked endearing with her eyes half-open, teal hair mussed, and puzzledly staring at Luka like that.

Miku stared at the muffin as though it was a foreign creature before yawning and sitting up. "Oh...I'll have some, then..."

"Here you go!" Yukari handed a muffin over to Miku, who took it and started to eat it, her blue eyes looking rather pensive, as though she was analyzing the taste.

"Ah, blueberry," Miku murmured as she ate.

"Yup!" Yukari said, proudly. "It's my favorite berry."

"Blueberries are nice," Lily agreed as she munched on the muffin.

"So," said Luka as she ate, "I think we should ask around for the Broker now, since we're here."

Lily and Yukari glanced at each other. Some unspoken message seemed to pass between them and they looked at Luka and nodded.

"Sure," said Lily. "Don't even know where to begin, though."

Luka allowed herself a smirk as she put her hand to her chest. "Leave it to me."

-o-o-o-

It wasn't too hard figuring out who were the street rats from the crowd. They were the ones who looked hungry, their eyes narrow as they glanced around for unchecked purses and unmanned stalls. They were the ones dressed poorer than everyone else, though they tried to disguise it. And there was that unmistakable aura of the destitute driven to thievery to survive that Luka knew quite well.

She decided that the best course of action was to blend in. Luka merged in with the crowd, moved like she did back on Marlon. No acrobatic stunts, no dodging tricks, at least, not yet. Just simple, shifty movement. No one approached her, which was a little puzzling. Marlon's thieves always spotted a newcomer in their ranks, as the community was so tightly knit.

Still, Luka decided to take a more direct route. She walked over to a boy with tousled blonde hair and a cap, dressed in a blue, dirty vest and oversized shorts. The left side of his face was bandaged, for some reason.

"Hey," she said, raising her hand.

The boy stiffened and faced her, looking at her warily. After a long while. he spoke up. "What do you want?"

Luka put on her best woeful face. "I heard about a man called the Broker...it's said he knows everything. My friend is suffering from infernalis and I need a cure..."

The boy's face twisted. "There's no cure for infernalis. Your friend's good as dead," he made to turn away but then Luka grabbed him by his arm.

"Wait!" Luka said, making her voice desperate. "But...but I need to try, right? People around here say the Broker knows everything, so can't he find a cure?"

The boy paused and looked at Luka again, warily. "You don't look like the kind of person who'd have enough money for 'im."

Luka shuffled her feet. "I can steal things."

The boy's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Really?"

"Really," said Luka.

The boy looked around. "Prove it. Steal ten apples from the fruitseller."

"Ten?" Luka could hardly believe it. The most she had ever stolen was three. She could barely carry ten. "That's so much!"

"It's a test," said the boy, crossing his arms arrogantly. "Let's see if you can do it. If you can, I'll tell you where you can find the Broker."

Luka was half tempted to grab the kid and punch him till he begged for mercy, but such violent displays would only attract the attention of the guards, and make her the aggressor. So Luka swallowed the insult and looked around. The fruitseller was at a stall, boredly looking for customers. That was bad. He would be on the alert for customers - and thus, thieves as well.

Luka blended in with the stream of people walking around and examining stall goods. As she reached the fruitseller's, she casually slipped out a hand and grabbed an apple, sticking it under her shirt. The fruitseller was none the wiser - Luka had done it with enough stealth and finesse to avoid being seen.

That was the easy part - stealing one apple. The problem was stealing nine more - that was pushing her luck a bit too far. Not only that, but how would she carry ten apples? They'd slip out of her shirt before long. Luka, perplexed, continued walking along the crowd of people, staring down at her feet. Some kind of distraction, she thought. She needed some kind of distraction-

"Excuse me," said a woman that Luka nearly ran into. Luka looked up from her feet and saw a rather severe-looking brown haired woman. She was holding up a poster that depicted...Luka's breath hitched.

Miku. Miku's face was drawn on the poster. Thankfully she was back at the inn with Yukari, but...if this woman was here...then were soldiers here too? Luka's heart began to beat faster in fear, but the woman continued talking.

"I'm looking for this girl," said the woman. "She is extremely dangerous. Have you seen her?"

Luka's numb mouth worked. "Ah...no, I haven't seen anyone like that before," said Luka.

The woman nodded. "I see. Thank you for your help." She left, leaving Luka standing there, blood chilled, in the crowd.

So she did the logical thing. Moving quickly from person to person, she begged for their help against a 'menacing brown-haired woman' who 'threatened me if I didn't give her my food' Though Luka was a little old to be playing the innocent, frightened waif, she did passably enough so that the noble-hearted festival-goers were quick to comfort her, giving her some coin to buy food before going to search for the brown haired woman.

Luka quickly ran over to the fruitseller and purchased nine apples with the money she conned, before running over to the boy.

"Ten apples," Luka said, apples practically tumbling from her arms.

The boy stared at them, his one visible eye wide with surprise. He obviously didn't expect Luka to do it, and he floundered a little. "Uh...good. Good to see you're good enough to do basic thievery...then...I suppose I can give you this information. The Broker is in the shadows of the city of Calverac...you just walk up to people like me there and say..." the boy looked around, shifty, before leaning in and whispering in Luka's ear: "Where is the fairy market?"

"Asked the little boy Barkett," Luka responded, automatically. It was an old rhyme.

The boy rolled his eyes. "No, you just say 'Where is the fairy market'. They'll take you there...but you have to pay a price for information."

"Okay," Luka nodded. "Thank you."

That said, she ran off to the inn, bounded up the stairs, knowing that they had to get out of the town now. She banged at the door to their room before an astonished-looking Lily opened it.

"What? You look like you just came back from hell," said Lily.

"Soldiers," Luka stammered. "We...we need to get out now, and go to Calverac."

"Calverac is a week's ride from here!" Lily gaped. "Why Calverac?"

"That's where the Broker is!" Luka said. "We need to leave now! A woman showed me a poster with Miku's face on it and...and they know we're here, we have to leave!"

Miku swallowed, fear in her eyes again. "O-okay..."

"Ah," said an unfamiliar male voice from behind Luka. "I think we've found her."

Luka's blood ran cold.


	8. Chapter 8

"Who are you?" Lily was the first to speak up, her voice measured and wary.

Luka turned around, slowly, and saw a man with short blue hair and similarly blue eyes. He was dressed in much finer armor than the soldiers who had been chasing after them before, with gold highlights and a black cape over it all, but Luka by now had a deep distrust of strange people in armor, and her hand strayed over the hilt of her sword.

The man smiled, pleasantly. "No one of import. I've been sent here to capture that girl over there, you see," he pointed at Miku, who paled even more. The man then turned his head, looked behind him. "Hey, Meiko! I found them!"

The sound of heavy footsteps in armored boots, and then the same brown-eyed woman Luka ran into at the market appeared. Luka's breath hitched as the woman passed ice cold eyes over hers.

"Ah," said Meiko, flatly. "It's quite convenient that the door is already open."

"Isn't it?" the man looked immensely pleased with himself.

"Now," Meiko turned her attention to Luka. "I do believe we've met before, earlier..."

"I'm not letting you touch her!" Luka's sword was out in a flash.

The man's eyes widened. "I can't believe you're actually protecting her..."

"According to the contract," Meiko said, curtly, as she drew her own sword, a curved blade, sharpened to a razor sharp edge, "we need to capture you all. No resistance, please. I wouldn't want any of you to have a few missing limbs."

"Run!" Luka yelled, backing away slowly.

"Ah," said Lily, "I'd love to, but there's nowhere to run-"

"Through the window!" Luka snapped. "I'll hold them off!"

"But Luka," Yukari interrupted, "your fighting skills aren't-"

"Just run!" Luka growled. "Remember, we'll all meet up later at the city I told you all about!"

"Luka," Miku stammered. One of her hands was holding onto Luka's shirt. "I..."

"Miku," Luka said, looking at Miku, read the fear and worry there in her eyes. "It's okay. I'll be fine!" she smiled at her. "Run now. I'll catch up later. And oh..." she whispered the password to the Broker, quickly, in Miku's ear, before withdrawing and drawing her attention back to the advancing Kaito and Meiko.

The sound of the window opening from behind Luka set her off. Luka heard Lily and Yukari jump out the window, and, after some hesitation, Miku let go of Luka and she too left.

Luka took a deep breath. She wasn't sure if she could actually survive this battle, but she knew that she had to, for Miku's sake. She had to protect her, after all. She hoped no harm would come to Lily, Yukari, and Miku as they traveled to Calverac.

"Ah, what a pointless sacrifice..." Meiko noted in a monotone.

Kaito sighed. "Well, one's better than none. She practically just gave herself up." He walked closer to Luka, seeming to completely ignore the blade pointed right at him. Luka glared at him, defiantly, and swiped the sword a few times in warning.

"I'm not letting you capture them!" Luka yelled.

Meiko sheathed her sword and nodded at Kaito, who raised a large, black club, mumbling something under his breath. Luka found, to her horror, that it must've been an immobilizing spell - her muscles seemed frozen and her arms would not obey her commands. The club came down.

The next thing Luka knew was darkness.

-o-o-o-

The wagon hurtled down the road, Lily driving the horse as hard as she could as the three of them got out of Laguar to the city Luka told them about - the one where the Broker resided.

Miku was huddled in the back of the wagon, eyes wide, holding herself. As the wagon bumped and bounced its way down the road, Miku whispered the password Luka told her, over and over.

"Where is the fairy market?" she said, softly. "Where is the fairy market?"

Deep in her heart she knew that the purpose of finding the Broker was to help her, was to help her so that she could find out who was chasing after her, and Miku swallowed. Everyone had sacrificed so much for her. All of this was her fault - everything. Her home burned...Marlon razed...Lily's shop, destroyed...it was all her fault. Her fault and the fault of her monstrous power. Miku hated it. Luka told her that it wasn't her fault, but it was, wasn't it? All of it...

And now, thanks to her, Luka was gone. Left back at the inn, battling against those two foes who looked almost invincible, in Miku's eyes. She hoped, fervently, that Luka would turn out okay somehow - that Luka really would come back, maybe a little battered but still the same Luka, still the same Luka with that easygoing smile on her face, that spark in her sapphire blue eyes. All Miku had now was that hope, so she clung to it.

The Lower World really was a terrible place, Miku was thinking, more and more. So unlike the clean, pure environs of the Crypton Tower. There was poverty, greed, promiscuity, violence...Miku swallowed as she recalled the bloody corpses of her friends and everyone else in the Tower the day the soldiers came. She had to avenge them...she had to beat whoever's trying to kill her, so that no one's deaths would have to be in vain.

The wagon violently jolted as Lily drove it down the road, frantically, and Miku was almost flung to the side. She was sitting in the back, as Lily and Yukari sat up front. That was the arrangement - Luka and Miku in the back, Lily and Yukari in the front. The elf and the engineer were really becoming close, Miku thought to herself. After only a few days of knowing each other...they really hit it off, surprisingly enough. Miku was happy for them, though. It would be bad if everyone was enemies. It would be bad if everyone hated her, or resented her, for what she did.

Miku looked down at her hands, trembling a little. What if they did hate her? What if they were only pretending to be nice? But that makes no sense...Luka wouldn't have worked so hard for her sake if she was only pretending. Miku drew her knees up to her chest and put her head on her knees. The need for Luka was like an ache.

"You better be alright, Luka..." Miku whispered, her words carried away with the wind.

-o-o-o-

"Ugh..." Luka groaned, her eyes blearily blinking open. Her head ached, as though someone was splitting it open with an axe or something, and wincing, Luka tried to get up but her vision spun too wildly for her to get a fix on her environment, and Luka fell to the floor again. Her fingers scrabbled at it for a few seconds before she realized that she was lying on stone.

"So you're awake?" asked a monotone female voice, one that penetrated Luka's foggy mind, wormed around in it before it hit upon a cache of memories and then everything rushed back to Luka's head.

"You!" Luka shot up and tried to ignore the vertigo wrecking havoc with her vision and balance. She tried to focus at the silhouette, barely visible through the barred door of the cell. "Where am I!" Her hand went down for her sword, but it grasped nothing but air. They had taken Luka's sword away from her.

"In a cell," said Meiko.

Luka growled. "I know that...I mean, where am I?"

"In a cell," Meiko repeated.

It doesn't look like Meiko was going to give any more answers, and Luka slumped back against the back of the cell, glaring at Meiko as her mind tried to formulate some plot of escape. The moment the woman left, Luka decided, she would check the lock on the door.

"Where are your friends?" Meiko said, her voice measured.

"How should I know?" Luka snapped.

"You told them to go to a city," said Meiko. "What city is it?"

"You think I'll tell you?" Luka said. "I won't betray them."

To Luka's surprise, and unease, Meiko laughed. It was low, and unsettling, and seemed to echo all around the walls of Luka's dingy cell. "I'm sure you will, when we finish with you. Don't worry. In time you will realize that this was all for the greater good."

"The greater..." Luka could hardly believe her ears. "Hey! Miku would never hurt anyone. I don't know why you're all so intent on killing her but she's...she's not a bad person! I'll never tell you freaks where she is!"

"Ah, I see you don't buy into that theory either," said Meiko, her voice a little more sympathetic. "Unfortunately, the people I'm working for do, and money is money."

"Who're you working for!" Luka shouted.

"No one you need to concern yourself with, seeing how you're in a cell," Meiko answered. In the distance, Luka heard the sound of rattling chains and heavy footsteps, saw Meiko's silhouette turn a little as she looked. "Ah. Here they come."

"Who?" Luka asked, some strange, gnawing fear in her chest.

"Who?" Meiko sounded surprised. "Your torturers, of course."

-o-o-o-

"Hey...cheer up, Miku," said Yukari, smiling weakly at the girl across the crackling fire. "I'm sure Luka's okay!"

"Yeah," said Lily. "She's tougher than she looks. She said she used to be a thief, right? I'm sure she's got herself in a lot of scrapes before. She'll make it through."

Miku sniffled a little. The girl looked unkempt, falling apart even. Her knees were huddled up to her chest, her hair mussed as dull blue eyes stared into the fire. "You think so?"

"I do!" Yukari said, nodding enthusiastically. "She'll be fine, you'll see! We're meeting up in Calverac, after all! She'll be there, and she'll probably have a really wild tale to tell too!"

The tealette across from them wiped her nose as she stared into the fire, looking like an oracle who could see the future revealed in the flickering flames. "I...I hope you're right..."

"Miku," Lily spoke up. "Don't worry. You have us too, not just Luka."

Miku's head lifted a little and she stared at Lily in surprise, eyes wide. "R-really?"

Lily nodded. "Really."

"But..." Miku's voice was tiny as she looked back down at her knees. "But why?"

"We're your friends, Miku," Yukari picked up. "We won't leave you behind. Friends don't do that, right?"

"But...I burned down Lily's shop..." Miku mumbled.

Lily shook her head. "You didn't burn it down. The soldiers did. Big difference there."

"Still!" Miku protested. "Your store wouldn't have burned down, if it wasn't for me! It's all my fault, I-"

"Stop it, Miku," said Yukari, quickly. "It's not your fault at all!"

"It's injustice, that's what," said Lily, slowly. "I mean...having all these people chase you for no concrete reason, ruining your life at every turn and never telling you why, and you never did anything to deserve this...if there's one thing I hate the most in the world, it's injustice. Don't worry about the shop, Miku...I make most of my money on the road anyways, the toy shop was more a hobby than anything else. The workshop is another story, but that can always be rebuilt. Look, Miku...I want to help you."

"And I want to help you too!" Yukari chimed in. "We're friends, Miku. We won't abandon you! And if it turns out Luka did get herself in trouble, then...we'll rescue her. That's what friends do."

Miku stared at Yukari and Lily for a long while, blue eyes wide with shock and surprise, before slowly they filled with tears and Miku buried her face in her hands, shoulders shaking. At loss, Lily sat there, but Yukari was quicker to respond and soon enough had the girl in her arms.

"I...I'm sorry," Miku sobbed. "Th-thank you...I...I don't know what I...what I'd..."

Yukari stroked Miku's hair. "It's okay, Miku..."

Lily sat there, awkwardly, before deciding that it would be a good idea to start making dinner. As she busied herself with the pack, she stared up at the starry night sky. It gave her comfort on many nights, when she was traveling alone. She could hear Miku's quiet sobbing and she frowned, a little. The girl must be holding in a lot of stress, from everything she had experienced, and now they lost Luka too, though hopefully, only for a little while.

"Calverac, huh..." Lily whispered, softly.

-o-o-o-

After a week's hard travel, the tired trio made their way to Calverac - a bustling port city built near the great Jehinnes River. Immediately they set upon a way of finding a place to stay, and Miku was quick to choose the most prominent inn in the city, so that, she explained, 'it'll be easier for Luka to find us'.

Lily estimated that they would be in the city for a good while as they waited for Luka to catch up, so she took up a job as an assistant in the store of an eccentric old bookkeeper. Yukari was completely enamored with the bookstore and would often visit and devour books on every topic she could, from history textbooks to folktales. The bookkeeper, a graying, stooped old fellow named Mr. Cantor, was all too happy to oblige, and he and Yukari spent many an afternoon chatting away about literature as Lily arranged books in the back.

Miku spent most of her time in the inn, only going out to eat every once in a while, fearful that soldiers may discover her once more. Mostly, she sat by the window and stared outside, hoping to catch a glimpse of a tired Luka coming through the city. She did that, for a long, long while, every day, religiously. She ate breakfast while staring at the window, read by the window, even slept in the bed closest to it. She never mentioned looking for the Broker, and Lily assumed that she wanted to wait for Luka to arrive before continuing the next step of their journey. Occasionally she whispered something, small snatches - 'where is the fairy market' - an old rhyme. Lily wasn't sure why Miku whispered that so often, but she let it be. It was a way of passing the time, after all.

The three of them, in their own way, waited for the missing fourth member of their party to arrive, their lives falling in steady routine.

It was only when Lily looked at the calendar at Mr. Cantor's store when she realized that it had been two months, and Luka had not yet arrived.


	9. Chapter 9

"It's been two months..." Lily said, quietly, as the three of them ate their dinner in the inn room. Her eyes glanced at Miku, who was, as always, resolutely sitting by the window as she ate.

"Two months since what?" Miku asked, still staring out the window.

Yukari looked down at the food, Lily looking at her next. The elf didn't seem very communicative, however, and said nothing, only looking helplessly at Lily. She didn't want to be the one to break the news.

"Two months since..." Lily rubbed her nose. "Two months since we left Laguar."

"So?"

Lily really didn't want to be the one to say it, but she did anyways, the words forming uneasily, slowly, uncomfortably in her mouth. "I...don't think Luka is...coming."

"Wait, Lily," said Yukari, quickly. "That's going a bit too far."

"Luka is coming," said Miku, her voice resolute, brooking no argument.

Lily sighed. "What makes you so sure of that? It's been two months. Laguar is a week's walk from Calverac. Look...I don't think Luka is coming."

"She is!" For the first time, Miku turned away from the window and glared at Lily. "She is coming! Maybe she just got lost-"

"It's a straight road from Laguar to here," said Lily, flatly. "No chance of getting lost on that. Look...those two we left her with...Meiko and that other guy...they looked like they were capable fighters. I'm not saying for sure that she is, but it's very probable that Luka is-"

"She's not dead!" Miku interrupted. "She can't be! She promised to protect me. She won't die!"

Lily took a deep breath. "I didn't say that she's dead. I think she's captured. Meiko said that she wasn't sent to kill us, but to capture us. Odds are, Luka's locked up in a base somewhere."

"Oh," Yukari said, eyes widening. "Then...if that's the case, we-"

"In a base?" Miku whispered, looking down at her plate of food, half-uneaten. "Where?"

Lily sighed. "I don't know. Anyways, we came here to find the Broker, right? If he really does know everything...then maybe, he might know where Luka is too."

Miku was on her feet in an instant after putting her food aside, and without saying anything she strode over to the door and started putting on her shoes.

-o-o-o-

Miku hadn't wanted to admit it to herself for a long while, but it was inescapable now - some trouble has come to Luka. Two months was a six weeks longer wait than anyone had been expecting, and despite Luka's brave words at the time of her stand against Meiko and Kaito, Miku was becoming increasingly certain that Luka's fighting skills weren't enough to live up to those words. And Miku was beginning to recognize that there was some part of her that...that needed Luka there, for her to feel really whole, to feel really safe. Even though Luka's fighting skills weren't much, Miku always felt safe and secure around the girl, and the thought of Luka in some danger was one that was almost physically painful to Miku.

"Idiot..." Miku cursed as she walked through the streets of Calverac, glancing around for anyone who looked like they might know the Broker. No such luck - the only people she saw on the streets at this time of day were rather normal, unassuming-looking people, a few families too. The air was sweet with the scent of candy, storefronts bright and festive, and Miku spent a long time wandering Calverac, until finally her search yielded up something. Her tired eyes spotted, in the perpetually gathered crowd of people around the river, a shifty, hungry-looking girl reach out for an unsuspecting woman's purse.

Immediately Miku's hand was out and she grabbed her by the shoulder. The girl stiffened, but made no sound, and slowly turned to face Miku. She had eyes the color of chocolate and black hair tied in ragged pigtails. She was young, Miku thought. No more than ten.

Surprisingly, the girl smiled at Miku, guilelessly. "Yes, ma'am?"

"You were about to steal that woman's money, weren't you?" Miku asked, dully. More corruption in the Lower World...it even affected children. Even though Luka too was a thief back in Marlon...Miku frowned at that. Someone like Luka shouldn't ever have to be reduced to the position of a street rat thief.

The girl frowned. "I'm hungry. That woman has more money than she needs, anyways. I'm only relieving her of the extra burden!" The girl then smiled, again, that foolish friendly smile.

Miku sighed. "Well...do whatever you want. I just want to know, where is the fairy market?"

The girl's expression changed, subtly, some strange feeling passing through those brown eyes. She stared suspiciously at Miku, her fool's grin dropping away. "Ah. Why do you want to know?"

"Someone...someone important to me...is trapped somewhere," said Miku, her heart pounding at the thought of Luka, locked up in some cell. "I was thinking that maybe...the Broker knows where she is. People say he knows everything."

The girl frowned. "Hm...well, the Broker doesn't give information for free. And I don't either! I'll take you to see him, if you buy me an apple fritter from the baker's."

Miku uneasily put a hand to her coinpurse. Lily had given her some spending money and Miku thought she had enough. And at any rate, finding out more about Luka was worth any amount of money.

"Okay," said Miku, finally. "I'll buy you an apple fritter. First, tell me where the Broker is."

The girl shook her head. "No! First the fritter, then the information! I'm not stupid, you might run away after I tell you where he is."

Miku sighed. She had no idea how trustworthy the girl was. "Okay. Fine. Show me where the baker's is."

The girl's face instantly split into a happy grin at that. "Okay!" she cried, nodding enthusiastically, and immediately set off at a run, disappearing into the crowd. Panicked, Miku quickly ran after her, following her bobbing head as she dashed through the crowd. The girl seemed incredibly energetic despite her skinniness and after a few minutes she stopped in front of a heavy stone building, the windows slightly open. The smell of freshly baking bread wafted out and Miku felt her stomach growl too, despite herself. She glanced over at the girl, whose face was bright as she stared at the building. She looked so innocent.

"Here it is!" the girl said, proudly. "The bakery! Remember, I want an apple fritter!"

"You're not coming inside?" Miku asked. The girl was rooted right outside the store.

"No," the girl said, shaking her head. "The baker doesn't like me. I stole from him too many times."

Miku shrugged, walked in the bakery. The baker was a rotund, red-faced man, business like. There weren't many apple fritters left, but Miku bought one anyways for a few coins and walked out, looking around for the girl. Almost immediately she felt the apple fritter get snatched out of her hands, and startled Miku stared at the contently eating girl.

"This is so good..." the girl said, smiling lazily as she ate.

Miku scowled at her. "Whatever. Where's the Broker?"

"Awh, calm down, ma'am," the girl said, waving her hand as she ate. "I'll take you to him soon."

Miku's eyebrow twitched. She didn't have the time to waste sitting around with this kid. She had to rescue Luka. Luka tried to protect her so many times, so now it was Miku's turn to protect Luka. "I don't have time! I have to save my friend!"

The girl sighed. "Is this really urgent?"

"Yes!"

"Okay," the girl said, munching on her apple fritter. "Follow me."

-o-o-o-

"Geez, why'd she go run out by herself?" Lily complained as she stomped through the city, Yukari looking around next to her.

"She's worried about Luka," said Yukari.

Lily frowned. "I understand that, but you'd think she would be rational, take the time to make a plan...not dash out on some wild goose chase. We don't even know where to begin, to find the Broker."

"Hey," said Yukari, her ears pricking, "is that her?" she pointed and Lily looked. There was a teal-haired girl, following a ragged-looking kid. Both of them looked rather shifty.

"Uh..." Lily squinted. "Is it?"

"Who else has hair that color?" said Yukari, excitedly, running over to the two before Lily could stop her. "Miku! Is that you?"

The girl turned and Lily noted with vague relief that it was indeed Miku. Yukari was an enthusiastic girl, eager to learn more about the world of humans, but sometimes her earnestness seemed like it could get her into trouble.

"Yukari," said Miku, looking rather surprised. The ragged-looking kid glanced at Yukari, curiously. "I found a lead on the Broker."

"Ah, you did? That's great!" Yukari enthused. "Who's this?" she looked over at the kid and smiled at her. "What's your name?"

The kid slowly chewed on her apple fritter. Her brown eyes seemed strangely calculating as they looked at Yukari, and Lily felt a chill run down her spine. Those eyes looked like the eyes of an experienced conman. "My name's Yuki Kaai!" the kid said, pointing at herself and smiling widely at Yukari. "So you're Yukari? You're an elf? Hey, that's really neat! I've never seen an elf before!"

"Yes, she's an elf," Lily said, quickly merging into the group. She stared at Yuki. Wide brown eyes, a friendly grin, dark hair swept up behind her head in pigtails. She was painfully thin, dressed in rags. Most likely another street rat. Lily frowned a little, the thought reminding her of Luka, who was probably locked up in some dingy cell, being tortured. "So. Where's the Broker?"

Yuki looked at Miku. "Well," she said, slowly. "You two need to pay a price too, like she did, before I can take you there. I know!" she brightened up. "I want some candied fruit! Buy me some and I'll take you all there!"

"Do I look like I have the money to waste on such things?" Lily growled. "Take us to the Broker-"

"Lily!" Yukari admonished. "Don't be so mean. She's only a child!" Lilac eyes turned reproachfully towards Lily. "Look at her! She's so thin...she's probably starving! We can spare some money to buy some fruit for her!"

"Candied fruit is expensive..." Lily mumbled.

Yuki glanced at Yukari, and then at Lily, her brown eyes calculating again before they returned to a more innocent-looking expression. She weakly toddled over and tugged at Yukari's shirt.

"Please?" she whimpered. "I'm so hungry and I haven't eaten candied fruit since I was seven...I'd really appreciate it if you bought me some, miss!"

Miku stared at Yuki. "But...we need to find the Broker-"

"Where do they sell candied fruit?" Yukari asked Yuki.

Yuki pulled a painful smile to her face. "Y-you'd really buy me some?"

Lily's eyebrow twitched. She wondered if, in her youth, Luka was also so blatantly manipulative. Somehow she could see the pink-haired girl take advantage of her looks in return for food or money. Still, Lily supposed, it wasn't like Yuki or Luka had any choice. They weren't on the streets because they wanted to be.

"Yes, I will!" Yukari said, smiling at Yuki. "Take us to a store that sells them, okay?"

"Alright!" Yuki cheered. "Follow me!" She dashed down the road, Yukari nimbly following her. After a resigned glance at each other, Lily and Miku followed them.

-o-o-o-

"The Broker changes locations a lot," said Yuki, happily clinging to Yukari as she munched on her candied fruits. Yukari had purchased her a sizable amount and the girl was having trouble carrying it all, but she managed well enough. After Yukari bought her so many, however, Yuki was practically inseparable from her. "But I think I know where he is now!"

"Why is it that only shifty looking people like you know where he is?" asked Lily.

Yuki shrugged. "I don't know! Lots of people know who he is, but he likes sending messages through people who have nothing to lose, so I guess that's why."

It was a surprisingly well-worded statement from a ten year old's mouth and Lily stared at her, suspiciously looking to see if Yuki had her hands in Yukari's coin pouch, but the kid seemed content with her fritters and fruit. As they walked Lily was discomforted to see that they were going into seedier and seedier areas, the buildings falling into rapid disrepair, the fetid stench of waste thick in the air, skinny people dressed in rags sitting against buildings, talking to each other, before slowly conversation tapered off and they stared nakedly at the intruders.

Miku, to Lily's surprise, didn't give off any sense of discomfort in these new surroundings, glancing about as though she was used to these sorts of places...but that was impossible, given that she was from the Tower. Maybe she had spent a good while living with Luka before the soldiers razed Marlon. There was no way Luka lived in an area that was well-to-do after all.

Yuki happily tripped down the road before stopping in front of a ramshackle old house, a cabin of dark wood. It looked rickety, as though it was about to collapse in on itself in a heap. Lily eyed the door. It looked as though it was rotting. The windows were boarded up and no light could be seen from the inside. The roof was flat, made of boards laid over the top of the domicile.

"This is it!" Yuki declared as she pointed. "This is where the Broker lives!"

"I don't think going in here is a good idea..." Lily said, before noticing Yukari and Miku entering the cabin. "W-wait! I think we should talk about it first, or-"

Yuki gave Lily a dour look. "Eh, too scared to go in a house? Guess you're just a coward in the end."

That did it. Lily glared at Yuki. "I am not a coward. I'm simply a logical person who likes thinking before I act on wild cockeyed impulses."

Yuki ate her fruit and calmly stared at Lily with liquid brown eyes before Lily, scowling, stomped into the cabin. As she entered, she noticed how there was nothing inside - it was completely bare of furniture. Miku and Yukari were standing around, looking confused. Wooden walls, wooden floor, the sound of the river outside.

"Hey...where's the Broker?" asked Miku, slowly.

Yuki walked in and closed the door behind them, an impish grin on her face. "Tricked you!" she crowed. "This is actually a slaver cabin!"

"What?" Yukari gasped, staring at Yuki, purple eyes wide and deeply hurt. It obviously never crossed her mind that someone as innocent-looking as Yuki could have betrayed them. "R-really? But...but why?"

Yuki coughed into her fist. "Um...I was just kidding...the Broker is here," she walked over to the center of the room and knocked on the floor, three times. A portion of the floor swung down on smoothly oiled hinges, revealing a flimsy rope ladder leading down into darkness.

Miku eyed it. It looked so frayed she doubted that it could even hold one person, let alone three. "Is this reliable?"

"Damn kid!" Lily swore. "That joke wasn't funny in the least!"

"I thought it'd be funny," said Yuki, her eyes downcast, "but Miss Yukari looked so scared it wasn't funny anymore. But your face was really great!" she pointed at Lily and started laughing. "You looked like some kind of monster! Anyways, it's safe! I took lots of people here before."

Lily scowled. She had about enough of the kid. "Alright, fine. Thanks for taking us here." She went over to the ladder and hesitantly placed a foot on the top rung. It supported her weight well enough. She started to go down it. The darkness grew larger the deeper she went, so dark that she couldn't see the ladder anymore, had to rely on her sense of touch. It felt like forever until she finally felt her feet on hard floor. Dropping to a crouch Lily passed a hand over it - felt like stone. She stood back and waited. After a few minutes, Miku and Yukari landed on the ground.

"Ah, the kid's not coming?" Lily asked.

Yukari shook her head. "No, she's not."

Miku had already started walking, and groaning Lily and Yukari ran to catch up with her.

-o-o-o-

After a long walk through what seemed like a dank, empty dungeon, the three found themselves in a vast circular room, lit by flickering torches bolted to the stone walls. There were many people here, of all classes - some rich, some poor, some the gray area of adventurers, all hungry for some tidbit of knowledge the Broker would give them. Lily even recognized the Duke of Northridge in the fray, as well as the famous head of the mages' guild. They were standing about in seemingly disorganized chaos, drinking from provided glasses of wine by silent servants dressed in elegant livery. It was a strange mix of high and low society.

Miku was looking around impatiently, and Yukari was practically ogling the room. Lily numbly took a glass of proffered wine and looked around. There was no one who looked particularly like the Broker, and people were clumped together, talking to each other, as though they were at a social club. Lily had no idea where to even begin looking for the Broker in the crowd.

Yukari however had no such compunctions. She walked right up to a nearby manservant and bestowed a dazzling smile upon him. "Excuse me! We're looking for the Broker. Do you know where he is?"

The manservant cleared his throat. "My apologies, ma'am. The Broker is currently occupied in a meeting. Please wait."

"Aw..." Yukari's ears drooped. "Okay...thank you for the help." She returned to Miku and Lily, face dejected. "The Broker's busy now."

"So what do we do? Take a number and wait?" Lily looked around. "From the looks of it, it'll take hours for him to even see us."

Miku was looking around, obviously impatient. "We don't have time for this...Luka...who knows what's happening with Luka?" her face was downcast. "We need to save her..."

Yukari put a comforting hand on Miku's back, and the three of them waited, during which Yukari wandered around and talked with the people there, a natural social butterfly it seemed. Miku was mostly quiet, her teal eyes darting around the room, as if Luka was hidden in a nook or cranny somewhere, her posture and demeanor deeply impatient. Lily only drank the wine.

It seemed like it took eternity for a manservant to walk up to them and quickly bow. "The Broker is ready to see you three now."


	10. Chapter 10

It was with some trepidation that Miku and her friends walked into a vast receiving room, a thick red carpet muffling their footsteps. In the middle of the room sat a man with long purple hair and icy blue eyes, looking for all the world like some kind of king. He was at a heavy oak desk, and was wearing luxurious clothes that seemed tailor-made for his agile frame. Most striking of all however was the quiet power he radiated - not something magical or physical, but rather, some subtle encompassing feeling of _knowledge_ - of knowing more than one should, and being a fearsome person because of it. There was no doubt in Miku's mind that this was the Broker.

"What do you want?" the Broker asked, very bluntly.

Shocked into action, Miku couldn't help but to give a blunt answer back. "I want to know where someone is."

"Ah, person location," the Broker mused, and he eyed Miku. "Very interesting that you would pay me a visit..."

"You know me?" Miku asked.

"I know everyone," replied the Broker. "For instance, I know that that elf over there is not only the princess of the Nilveri but also has a vast collection of human books, including a very rare volume of Imajika."

Yukari gaped. "H-how did you know that?"

The Broker continued talking over Yukari. "I also know that the other girl in your party was originally born to some minor nobility in Northridge, though the name 'Masuda' has long since passed into obscurity."

Lily scowled at him. "It...that's none of your business, I'm-"

"As for you," the Broker continued, eying Miku, a small grin on his face, "I must admit, I know very little. Only snatches, really, but your name has become very large, in this world - although, the name you think is your own isn't what others think of you as. I know only that you were born in the Crypton Tower, and that you have some great sleeping power within you. The rest, as they say, is only hearsay...but very persuasive hearsay."

Miku's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "What do the others say about me? Who are the others who talk about me? The soldiers who're coming after me, you know what organization they belong to?"

The Broker smiled. "That is information that must come at a price. And you have little to offer me. One question I will answer, after you have paid."

"What's the price?" Lily asked. "Money?"

The Broker laughed. "Typical of destitute nobility, your mind instantly leaps to monetary matters. No, I don't want that. Instead, I want information. New information. No, it's no use giving me some tidbit about the Nilveri," the Broker said, after noticing that Yukari had opened her mouth. "I know quite a bit about them already, you see. Give me five minutes and I can start a war between the humans and elves, which is, I believe, information enough already."

"New information," Miku said, slowly. "Do you want...maybe...information about the Tower?"

The Broker's smile grew, his icy blue eyes taking on a rather covetous expression. "Yes. For generations, the Tower has been sealed away from the rest of humanity. I know many, many things, but I do not know anything about the Tower. Though I have already sent people out to the Tower to scrounge its corpse for information, I'm afraid that I don't have a first-person account of what life was like in there. And you, as the sole survivor of the attack upon the Tower, have what I need. I want to know something very simple. A narrative of your life in the Tower."

"That'll take ages!" Lily protested. "All that for just one question? At least give us two!"

Miku frowned. "Yes...why can't we have two questions?"

"The repercussions of letting you know the answer to just one of the questions is tremendous," said the Broker. "In fact, if I give you the answer to just one, I would be putting the lives of some important clients in grave danger. Two might be enough to unleash anarchy on the lands. Additionally, you do not come alone - you arrive with two others, both of whom would also carry the information with them when they leave the room. No. One question only, I think, is more than fair."

Miku's eyes widened. Letting her know the answer to just one of the questions is tremendous? And only one question to ask too...she didn't want to leave Luka trapped in a dungeon, but she did want to know who her enemies were exactly too, not to mention, exactly what others say about her. The Broker said that her name stretches far in the world, but it wasn't the name she took as her own...try as she might, Miku couldn't figure out so much from the tiny tidbit of information the Broker had given her. All she knew when it came to names was her own, Miku Hatsune. But she felt as though if she knew that, then everything, her power, why people were chasing her, everything would be revealed. It was tempting to ask - to face the Broker and ask him who she was, exactly.

But at the same time...Miku knew that she couldn't abandon Luka. The girl had sacrificed so much for her - lost her home, lost her friends, all because she sheltered Miku. Luka swore to protect Miku so many times, and she did, giving herself up to their would-be captors. She had even sacrificed her freedom for Miku. Miku swallowed and turned to Lily and Yukari, looking at them, newer companions than Luka, but still steadfast and there. She knew what they would want her to do, somehow, and Miku knew that that's what she also wanted to do.

"I think..." said Miku, "that I'll ask where Luka is."

Yukari smiled at her. "I think that's what you should ask too."

Lily gave her a tired-looking grin. "That's what we came here to ask, right?"

Miku nodded and faced the Broker again, whose expression was impersonal. "I have my question."

"Then pay the price," the Broker said.

Miku nodded and opened her mouth to begin telling the story of her life.

-o-o-o-

Ever since she was born, she was charmed in the world of the Tower. The King himself personally came down to celebrate her birthdays, which were always well attended by everyone in the Tower. Her family was nobility and as such Miku had always enjoyed lavish accommodations, delicious food, and a veritable army of maids at her command. The other children her age were always in awe of her - she was practically worshipped by them, and Miku always surrounded herself with friends, who were always happy to do whatever she asked. Miku's best friend, however, was a red-haired girl named Miki, and Miku recalled that they had spent many days eating together, playing together, many nights spent sleeping over and staying up late, talking about trivium deep into the night.

Miku's tutors recognized in her an uncommon talent, a remarkable lust for learning, and so her parents proudly showered her with books and other such information. Miku was curious about the Lower World, in her youth, but everyone in the Tower believed that the Lower World was unclean and that in time a great harbinger would come to cleanse the world, to purify it so that things would be how they were in the Tower, and in time, Miku came to believe that too.

Everything in the Tower, Miku recalled, wistfully, was so clean. So clean and beautiful and nice. As a noble, Miku never had to worry about food. It was always brought to her, cultivated on the great floors devoted to farming and ranching, maintained with magic. Miku of course learned magic in the Tower as well, but her interests did not run along the maintenance of the fields. Water was purified from rainwater, drawn from the ground, and recycled using specialized techniques of magic that the Cryptonites had jealously guarded from the Lower World. There were craftsmen, singers, artists, writers. They lived in a society where everyone was treated equally, though the nobles, of course, were more important than everyone else underneath.

Here the Broker interrupted. "Have you ever talked with a non-noble before, in any depth?"

Of course she had, Miku boasted arrogantly. They were the closest thing she had to the Lower World, and everyone was in awe of her, as they rightfully should. Craftsmen gave her trinkets, little baubles. Artists and writers and composers alike created great works in her name. And when Miku asked about their lives, they all smiled and told her that they were happy. The Crypton Tower was a place devoid of unhappiness. It was clean, unlike the Lower World. Clean and pure. Everyone knew their place. Nobles were here. Commoners were there. And everyone, Miku asserted, after remembering the poverty that wracked some areas of the Lower World, had enough to eat.

The Broker looked doubtful of this, but let Miku continue. The girl was all too happy to do so, her mind already lost in the pleasant cloud of memory.

Religion was a large part of everyone's life in the Tower. There were services every day, before bed, that Miku attended. Over and over was she taught about the uncleanliness of the Lower World, the need to put the fate of the world in the cleansing hands of the Harbinger, heavensent for the purpose of clearing the world of corruption and evil, so that the world too may be like the Tower.

"A question," the Broker said, suddenly. "Did people marry out of love, or out of arranged marriages?"

Naturally out of love. There were elaborate courting traditions that had to be carried out amongst nobility and every spring there would be a great fair, where competitions were held, and people competed for their beloved. Even children took part for the admiration of someone they were infatuated with. Though Miku never expressed, or for that matter had an interest in anyone, many people competed for her affections, something that she enjoyed, something that bolstered her ego.

Miku talked about festivals, games, literature, plays, competitions. She told the Broker anecdotes about her childhood and adolescence. It was as though the Broker's words, 'pay your price', had unlocked a gate of memory, and everything was gushing out now, flickers of memory becoming embers and inferno, the Tower around Miku once more. She could almost smell the familiar scent of the prayer candles, could almost taste the succulent stuffed poultry served during the harvest festival. It seemed as though she would never stop, but eventually, all things end. Miku's narrative wound down the day the Tower was attacked, and then her former home died in her mind once more, the proud walls and sculptures burned down, the magical fields rendered barren by the unclean lowborn.

For a long while, the Broker was silent. He seemed to be digesting this information, storing it away in a pocket of his brain. Then, he leaned forward and spoke.

"The price has been paid," said the Broker. "Ask your question."

All at once Miku's purpose in coming here rushed back in her mind. Luka's face back when she stood at the inn, holding Meiko and Kaito off, the bravery of it, the simple loyalty, was clear in Miku's mind, and even clearer were the words that Luka always spoke to her, no matter what - 'I'll protect you'. She hardly hesitated as she spoke. "Where is Luka Megurine held?"

"Luka Megurine..." The Broker's eyebrow raised. "Interesting question. I expected you to ask something else entirely, especially after your narrative painted you as the spoiled potentate of the Tower. In fact," the Broker started to smile, "this is something I find very interesting indeed."

Miku frowned. "How so?"

The Broker only shook his head. "That is another question, Ms. Hatsune, and you are only given one. I will tell you where your Luka is held. She is currently imprisoned in a desolate old base, twelve leagues from here. It was, in older times, used as a military installment, but now it is a jail...a jail with many weapons, a jail renowned for its cruelty and variety of torture instruments. Jiraun is its name."

"Jiraun..." Miku said the name, slowly, her blood chilled. Many weapons, cruelty, torture...what is Luka going through now? Miku's heart beat fast, panic and worry churning in her stomach. What was happening to her? They didn't have time to waste standing here!

"We have to go," said Lily, bluntly.

"Thank you," Yukari said to the Broker, softly.

"Yes," said the Broker. "Farewell."

Soon enough the three had vacated the room, and the Broker sat back in his chair, smiling slightly. That had been the Harbinger no doubt, the same girl that Prince Len had been asking him about. The Harbinger, built up by many to be the apocalyptic bringer of the end times, yet when the Broker laid eyes on her, she seemed to be little more than a confused girl, spoiled in her upbringing as a noble and worshipped in the cultists' tower, yet earnest and sincere in her desire to save a mere street rat such as Luka. It was all very interesting. Very, very interesting indeed. The Broker began to look forward to hearing more about the strange trio as his clients, inevitably, brought more news to him.

-o-o-o-

Miku wasted little time. Packing up their meager possessions, she told Lily to get the wagon and set a course to Jiraun as soon as possible, sent Yukari out to purchase healing salves and weaponry. Miku had been trained somewhat in swordfighting, though it was for purely aesthetic purposes, for the grace of elegantly wielding a rapier like an extension of one's arm, not for bloodshed, but it was the closest thing she had to a reliable weapon other than her magic.

After Lily wrote a note to Mr. Cantor and slipped it under the store door, the three of them set off. Miku drove the horse mercilessly, stopping only for the most perfunctory rests, eating on the road. She was a girl possessed, the only thought in her mind that of sheer, overbearing worry for Luka. Miku shuddered to think of the tortures that would be visited upon her, and the thought that every second wasted was a second spent by her enemies torturing Luka was a thought that constantly accompanied her.

After four hours of nonstop travel, the horse collapsed with Jiraun in sight, breathing heavily. Lily quickly got out of the cart to tend to it while Miku stared at the jail, which was tall, made out of old stone, patrolled, it seemed, by many armored guards. There were only a few windows, tiny ones, dotted here and there. The shape of the building seemed crumbling and old - Miku could imagine veritable armies of mold, cockroaches, and rats making their homes in there, and shuddered. That was where Luka was held, she thought, and her resolve strengthened again.

"I think we should rest before going in," said Lily as she got up, dusting off her clothes. "Make a plan."

"There're so many guards," said Yukari, despondent. "How will we get in without being noticed?"

Miku frowned. "Ask for a tour?"

Lily laughed. "Jails don't give tours, Miku. Jails imprison. And if this jail is controlled by the organization that's after you, you can bet that they'll be on you the moment they see you. We need to find a way to sneak you in...'

"Ah!" Yukari clapped her hands together. "I know! How about..."

-o-o-o-

Big Al hated his job. The pay sucked, the benefits were nil, and he had to sit around listening to the wails of the tortured all day. More than once he considered leaving his job, going back to his Uncle Leon's farm, and leading a quiet life. In fact, he was strongly considering it now, as he stood outside the jail with the sun hot on his head and a damnable itch in his nether regions.

But that was before he saw her - a beautiful girl running towards him, with long lilac hair and wide purple eyes, looking for all the world like a damsel in distress. Big Al stiffened, eyes wide, as she ran up to him, panting slightly.

"Excuse me," said the girl, softly, her voice the voice of a bell. "My name is Yukari Yuzuki...of the Nilveri...and I was wondering if you could perhaps give me and my companions of a tour of the jail?"

Big Al had no way of knowing that he was securely under the thick glamor the elf was giving off. All he could see was the girl before him, all he could smell was the sweet scent of honeysuckle and ripe berries. He desperately wanted to please the elf. In his mind the two of them were already married and he was giving her a bouquet of freshly grown onions. However, hours of training had pounded in him that outsiders weren't allowed in the jail, unless they were officials.

"I'm sorry," said Big Al, trying to stay professional. "Your...the jail is only open to...personages of importance..."

"Oh, but I am important!" the elf pleaded, eyes wide and beseeching. "I'm the princess of the Nilveri, good sir!"

A princess! Big Al had no trouble believing that out of the girl. She seemed so regal, so beautiful, that the fact that she was a princess seemed as natural as the sky being blue. Big Al smiled doofily at her, though she could not see it through the heavy iron helmet he wore.

"You can come in then," said Big Al proudly, feeling very important, and the girl brightened, gave him a hug, and hurriedly beckoned her companions, a sullen-looking woman with long blonde hair followed by some person wearing a mask of hay. For some odd reason, that seemed perfectly natural to Big Al and he let them pass with a smile on his face, thinking of the elf princess who had bestowed so much favor on him.

An hour later the glamor wore off and he wondered what the hell he did.

-o-o-o-

"That was easy," said Lily as she glanced around the interior - a circular room with winding stone staircases going up and down.

Yukari nodded proudly. "Us elves are peaceful folk! That's why we give off glamor, to stave off aggression."

"Glamor doesn't always work," said the hay-masked Miku darkly. "Anyways, I think Luka should be on the lower floors. Everyone ready?"

Lily nodded, and Yukari looked rather nervous before nodding too. The three of them walked over to the staircase and, slowly, with Miku taking the lead, they descended down.


	11. Chapter 11

Miku merged easily in the shadows, her steps light and quiet as the three slowly descended down the winding staircase of the jail. Flickering lights ahead of her announced the next floor, and her hand loosened the hilt of the sword Yukari had purchased – a rather commonplace sword, unlike the beautiful blades Miku had back in the Tower, but it was thin and suited her style well enough.

At the second floor down, they were noticed. Miku was peering over at the floor, looking for any sign of Luka, when a guard, sitting at a long oak table, looked up.

The three stood there for a very long while, and then the guard got up, slowly, armor clanking, hand already on the hilt of his sword. He opened his mouth to speak. "You aren't allowed-"

Miku didn't waste any time. She ran forward, sword already out and in her hand. Behind her she was dimly aware of Yukari crying out and saying something, but the only thing in Miku's mind was the need, she recognized, to kill or be killed. Some deep instinct within her, some Voice that wasn't hers yet at the same time was, was telling her that if this guard was to continue talking, if he was to somehow reach them and demand that they get out, the three would lose their chance of rescuing Luka.

And that was something Miku wasn't willing to let happen. Her arm instinctively shot out, found the guard's throat, dug in deep, blood spewing out as the man's interrupted sentence became a choked, guttural cry. He fell backwards, hitting the thankfully mat-covered floor, Miku on top, sword stabbing and slashing at his throat, over and over, painting her mask, her clothes, with flecks of red blood, and when she felt a hand on her shoulder, she almost turned and tore that person's throat out too, before the haze in her mind, that commanding voice, receded, and Miku returned to herself again.

Yukari was staring at her, eyes wide and fearful, pale and trembling. "M-Miku," she stammered. "I...th-that's enough…"

Lily glared at her harshly, blue eyes flashing. "What the hell were you thinking? You didn't have to _kill_ him! You could've let him get close enough, within Yukari's glamor distance, we could've gotten through this without any bloodshed!"

Miku suddenly felt very pale and very weak. Shaking, she stared at the guard, whose throat was slashed wide open, blood soaking the mat. They were right. Why…why did she do that? She had never killed anyone before, never. She wasn't a brutal killer, was she? But then Miku remembered her power, how that force in her grew, and grew, until it reached a peak, erupted out of her body, killed an entire battalion of soldiers. What…what was wrong with her? Normal people don't go into bloodmad rages. Normal people don't have that kind of sick, perverse magical power within them. The Broker had said that her name was well known in the world, but that name was not a name she knew as hers. What, exactly, was she? Miku felt a sudden wave of nausea hit her as she stared at the guard's corpse and she leaned forward, sweaty hand holding onto the hilt of her sword as her stomach roiled inside her, her mind tortured by doubts and fears.

Who was she? What was she? Was she a monster? What was wrong with her?

"Miku…?" Yukari's voice was soft and timid. "Are you…okay? Why did you do that…?"

Miku was silent for a long while, before she abruptly stood up after snatching the keys from the guard's belt. "We need keys to unlock Luka's cell, don't we?" her voice was quiet and harsh, and she was already walking over to the winding staircase again before she realized that Lily and Yukari weren't following her.

"Well?" Miku asked. "We can't stay here. We need to keep moving. The other guards will find this corpse. We need to save Luka, remember?"

Yukari looked down at the floor, and Lily put a hand on her shoulder. Another look seemed to pass between them, and they slowly followed Miku down the staircase again.

-o-o-o-

Miku didn't want her voice to be so harsh, but there was some other part within her that was, she dimly recognized, awakening. Some great, unknown thing in her that had laid sleeping, and was beginning to wake now, slowly. What would happen when it fully woke, Miku did not know.

As the three penetrated deeper into the labyrinthine jail, they found that the conditions of the cells became worse and worse. Gibbering prisoners clutched at bars and screamed out their sorrow, echoing all around the trio. Yukari was shaking, disturbed, her pointed ears agitatedly twitching, and Lily had an arm around her and was speaking to her in quiet, comforting tones as Miku doggedly went down floor after floor. The wails of the prisoners seemed to her the wails of the damned, and the deeper the three went, the more, it seemed, like they were going down to the fires of hell.

The Miku back in the Crypton Tower would have been afraid – would have turned back and ran to the surface. But Miku had no home to go to now, so she pressed on, a girl possessed, her mind consumed with the singular goal of finding Luka. Yukari's glamor was flickering as the elf grew more and more agitated, yet the three could not turn back now. There would be guards, Miku knew, and that other part of her whispered that there was no turning back. If they did, it warned, they would be faced with peril. Yukari, in her state now, would surely die. And Yukari was Miku's friend and companion. She could not die.

"How much longer?" Lily asked, finally, breaking the silence in the trio.

Miku continued descending stair after stair. "Until we find Luka."

"How do we know the Broker gave us reliable information in the first place…" Lily sighed. "This could be a wild goose chase, for all we know, and Yukari…Yukari's not feeling good."

"Luka's here," said Miku, firmly. "And we can't turn back. There will be guards. They would have seen the corpse."

Lily growled. "And whose fault is that? Who's the one who went against plan and killed him? What's wrong with you?"

Something snapped. Miku stopped walking and turned to face Lily, who was glaring at her, Yukari leaning on her for support. "I don't know! I don't know what's wrong with me! I don't know why I have this power, I don't know why I killed the soldier! Some part of me told me that if he got close, we'd lose Luka! There was this voice in my head and I don't know where it's coming from! I don't know why people are chasing me, why I have this power, why I hear voices in my head!"

Lily was staring at her, and Miku put a clammy hand over her forehead, took deep breaths before speaking again, her voice calmer now, more measured. "I don't know any of that. I've never killed anyone before…I didn't want to….but I had to…or at least, that's what I felt. I do know one thing though, and that's that we have to save Luka…so let's save her and we can talk about this all later, when we're not in danger, okay?"

Lily slowly nodded. "Fine. Lead on."

Miku turned and did just that. Her footsteps tapped the stone of the staircase until there was none, and only a great oak door loomed before her. Swallowing hard, Miku took out the key she took from the guard she killed, flipped through the iron. Her fingers found a likely key and slowly she fitted it into the lock, turned.

The door gave with a groaning creak and with some trepidation, Miku, Lily, and Yukari stepped inside. The smell of blood was thick in the air, and upon entering, Miku almost doubled up, almost threw up, because of the horrifying sights before her. Yukari gasped, sharply, and Lily was silent, her eyes only staring at the chamber.

It was large, for one – a single circular room, its ceiling high above Miku's head. Four windows letting a modicum of light into the room, reinforced by lit torches bolted around the circular room. The floor was cold gray stone, old as the Crypton Tower it seemed, and the torture instruments were many – several blood-soaked Judas Cradles, one with a dead prisoner on it still, a rack, with spikes planted along the spine of it, so that as the victim was stretched, it would dig into his back. A chair with spikes on the back, armrests, seat, and legs, iron manacles on it, still gleaming with fresh red blood, a head crusher, cat's paws lined on the wall, a wheel with a dead victim still tied on it, head crushed, limbs shattered. Knee splitters, iron maidens, Miku could hardly bear to see the variety of instruments in this wretched place.

"Luka was…" Yukari whispered, voice fragile and afraid, "here…?"

Miku swallowed and slowly stepped into the room. The stench of blood became overwhelming. She cast her eyes around the room, looking for Luka, and eventually found her, lying on some stone table.

Immediately Miku ran to her, and at the sight of her, Miku didn't know whether to feel happy, sad, horrified, angry…a whole mix of emotions boiled in her stomach.

Luka was in terrible condition. The girl, already skinny, was even thinner now, so thin it seemed like the wind would break her. A scar ran down her right cheek, another one crossed over her nose. Her right ear was torn, the earlobe ragged. Her cheeks were hollowed in, ribs clearly visible, naked and bruised all over. Her arms were hanging limply off the table and her eyes were closed. For a moment Miku feared that she was dead, but then she saw the slight rise and fall of her chest. Relief rushed in her and Miku grasped Luka's left hand before seeing that her fingers, once quick and clever, were crushed, and she had lost a finger on her right hand.

"L-Luka…" Miku whispered, trembling.

Luka groaned and she slowly opened her eyes, stared at Miku. There was no recognition in it, and that was what crushed Miku the most. Tears collected in her eyes and Miku lowered her head, regretting that she had taken so long to come, had wasted so much time sitting there and waiting, when she should've been here, should've been with Luka, should've….

"It's me, Miku," Miku said, quietly, to the girl. "Lily and Yukari are here too. We're going to rescue you, okay?"

Luka stared at Miku with her eyes before slowly closing them. She was apparently too exhausted to do anything more, and Miku gently lifted her up from the table. She was so light…anger flooded in Miku's chest, spread to the rest of her body. She would kill the people who made Luka like this, so scarred and broken and traumatized. She would kill them, all of them. Meiko and Kaito, the two who brought Luka here, to this place, captured her, tortured her, Miku would tear their throats out. The guard she killed earlier now seemed to have gotten far too light a punishment. Miku should've drawn out his death.

"Miku…" said Lily's voice, alarmed. "We have company."

Miku scowled and walked over. As she neared the door she saw that the room had become, suddenly, full of guards. Standing at the doorway was Meiko. Miku's eyes narrowed. Still holding Luka, she walked over to her, ignoring Yukari's horrified gasp, Lily's sharp intake of breath at the sight of the once happy thief girl.

"Why did you do this to her?" Miku asked, her voice dark. A voice in her head was telling her to kill Meiko, to take her revenge, but Miku waited. Not yet, said the other voice, the powerful voice, the one who told her to kill the guard earlier. Not yet. It is not time.

Meiko smiled. "We needed to know where you were. She was a very stubborn girl. But in the end, you three waltzed in here…so we didn't really need her at all."

Miku snarled. "You tortured her this much, just to find out where we were? Look at her!"

Meiko shrugged. "I've seen worse."

"What the hell is wrong with you..." Lily spoke, her voice quiet. "What kind of twisted person are you working for, to…"

Meiko cocked her head to the side. "Well, I would think you could figure it out. This is, after all, an official jail of the state. The rulers of Elphegort want you dead, Miku…" Meiko fixed her eyes on Miku, coldly. "Enough to order all this bloodshed."

Miku's blood froze. The king…the king wanted her dead? But…but why? She never even met him! Why would he want to kill her? Miku's eyes narrowed. The Lower World really was dirty – dirty and low and disgusting. Corruption was everywhere, fat pigs greedily feasting while others rotted in gutters, and Miku was sick of it, sick of it all. If she could change the world…if she could reshape it…but she couldn't. She was only a little girl, after all. A powerful one, but she couldn't change the world.

"Why?" Miku asked.

Meiko looked surprised. "Ah, so you still don't know? Well, it doesn't matter. You're going to die now, anyways…you and your friends." She snapped her fingers and the guards readied their weapons.

"We're surrounded…" Yukari said, eyes wide as she looked around at the rapidly encircling ring of guards. There was a sharp sound of Meiko drawing her blade.

"No choice but to fight," Lily drew her weapon, the cannon she fired at the soldier back in her shop. "So the government's behind this…? Never liked them much, to tell the truth."

"I never knew humanity was…could be…so cruel…" said Yukari, softly. "The books I read always spoke of hope, but there is no hope here..." Even as she spoke, the elf had already drawn her own sword.

"You still have that amulet, don't you?" Miku asked, readying her rapier and glaring at Meiko as she spoke to Yukari.

Yukari's eyes widened. "I almost forgot! The amulet my father gave me!"

Miku took a deep breath of relief. She had almost forgotten about that, it was so long ago. Luka had been glamorstruck by the elves back then, Miku recalled. Is Luka still capable of being glamorstruck by anything, now?

"Use it!" Miku shouted, and there was a dizzying flash of blue, all around her eyes.

Then, nothing.

-o-o-o-

Miku groaned as she opened her eyes. She was lying on a soft bed of leaves, some sunlight shining through the leaves of the trees surrounding her.

Immediately she sat up, mind rushing to Luka, before a dizzying vertigo took hold of her and Miku put a hand to her spinning forehead, groaning.

"Lie down," said a familiar elf voice, Yukari's, her hands gently pushing Miku back down on the leaves.

"Where's Luka?" Miku croaked.

"She's being tended to, by our healers," said Yukari, softly.

Miku smiled a tired smile of relief. Luka is being taken care of. "Lily?"

Yukari smiled quickly, and then looked away. "Lily is currently talking with Mew. Telling her about our adventures, up to this point."

"Oh…" Miku sat up. "We escaped?"

Yukari grimaced. "Some guards followed us in the teleportation stream. We took care of them."

"I see…" Miku said, slowly. "Can I…see Luka?"

Yukari smiled at her. "Sure." She held out her hand and Miku took it, the elf balancing her as she stood up unsteadily on legs that felt like jelly. The elf then led her towards a vast open area, where injured elves laid on mats, being tended by other elves. In one of the mats laid Luka, and Miku was barely aware of when her feet started to run. The smell of crushed barika leaves and pine water reached her nose, a medicinal scent, and Miku knelt down next to the elf who was tending Luka.

Luka's eyes were still closed, but there was some color in her cheeks now, and her fingers were no longer crushed, though she was still missing her ring finger on her right hand. Miku felt her face soften in a little smile at the sight of her recovering.

"How is she?" asked Miku, to the elf healer.

The elf took a deep breath. "She's recovering. It'll take a while…her fingers were completely crushed. They won't be able to move very well ever again."

Miku's eyes widened and she looked down at Luka again. Her heart suddenly felt incredibly tender. The girl had gone through so much, to protect her…lost a finger, an earlobe, scarred her face, bruised her body, all for her. Miku felt tears collect in her eyes and she looked down, hand reaching out to stroke Luka's cheek.

The healer was looking at her. "You really like her, don't you?"

"Huh?" Miku looked at the healer.

The elf looked back down at Luka. "She had gone through many things, in her torture. She did it to protect you, didn't she? She must care about you a lot, then."

Miku swallowed and looked back down at Luka. "Yeah," Miku whispered. "Yeah. She does."

The healer was looking at her again. "Forgive me if this seems too personal, but…do you love her?"

"H-huh?" Miku's eyes widened and she stared at the healer.

The healer looked a little embarrassed. "Ah…sorry, I guess that was a bit too personal. I was curious…it just seems like you two care about each other a lot…"

Miku bit her lip and looked down at Luka. She never really thought about love, before. She had always assumed that she would fall for another noble, in the Crypton Tower someday – not for a mangy lowborn street rat like Luka.

Yet…Luka was brave, and loyal, and kind, and true. Miku cared about her – she cared about her a lot. She loved her.

For some reason, the realization did not shock Miku. It felt simple, easy, natural, as though the feelings had always been there, waiting, and Miku had only just realized what she felt all along.

"No," said Miku, softly. "It's fine. Yes," she smiled at the healer. "I do love her. Do you know…do you know when she'll be up? When she'll be recovered?"

The healer thought. "It's hard to say. The wounds she suffered are very severe. It's a miracle she survived...a week, I believe, for her to wake up."

Miku nodded and got up to her feet. "Let me know the moment she does."


	12. Chapter 12

"They escaped?" Len yelled, banging his hands on the table as he glared at Meiko and Kaito. "You had them right in Jiraun, surrounded by guards, and you're telling me that they _escaped?_"

Kaito swallowed. "Your majesty, one of them, the elf, had a teleportation amulet that allowed her to-"

Len waved him away and shot a glare at the stoically standing Meiko. "I pay you all that gold and you can't even manage to capture, in your own words, 'four little girls'?"

Meiko sighed. "Well, your highness, you were the one who neglected to provide us a description of what the other three girls looked like. Anyways, it shouldn't be difficult capturing them again. The one we had captured in Jiraun, in particular, we crippled."

"Crippled?" the prince asked, blue eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Kaito saw in this a chance to redeem himself. "Yeah! We gave her back a harsh punishment that she won't be forgetting anytime soon. She won't be as capable a fighter as before, not that she was ever a good fighter in the first place...she was exceedingly easy to capture, your majesty."

Len looked only slightly mollified. "If you say so...but you all know we don't have much time left," his brow creased and he walked over to the window, looking outside. "There have been more earthquakes, recently, and storm clouds are gathering at Highpoint. The Harbinger is awakening. You must find her, soon, otherwise we are all lost." As he said this, he traced his fingers over the cool glass of the window, looking as though he was drawing comfort from it. The young prince was weak and frightened - Meiko could see that easily now. Her brow furrowed in contempt, but the prince had gold so she let it be.

"You two are dismissed," said the prince.

"Yes, your majesty!" Kaito said, saluting instinctively.

"Yes," said Meiko, and she left.

-o-o-o-

Luka wasn't sure where she was, when her eyes slowly opened after what seemed like an eternity of deathlike sleep. She waited for the now-familiar feeling of throbbing pain networking through her body, but to her surprise, there was none. All she could see was the sunlight filtering through tall trees, and all she could smell was the sweet scent of nature.

Was she dead? Luka wondered. Looking around Luka saw that she was alone in some clearing in the woods, lying on a soft, clean bedroll. Pine water, crushed leaves that she could not identify, in a wooden bowl next to her. Slow memories floated through her foggy head.

Torture, she remembered. She had been tortured for what seemed like eternity, surrounded by the screams and wails of the damned like her. Tortured for the knowledge of where her friends were, and when Luka proved too stubborn, living through having her fingers crushed, ring finger sliced off, and face slashed, her torturers seemed to have sentenced her to death, after a brutal raking of her back with the cat's claw, strips of her own flesh peeled off, taking away muscle to reveal bone. Meiko had stood above her as Luka laid on a stone table, the abrasive stone irritating her back wounds, as Luka sniveled and sobbed, begged and pleaded for mercy. She had forgotten, entirely, where her friends were now, yet Meiko did not believe her.

Luka shuddered at the memory. Her back still ached, dully, but it was better now. Some kind of healer…

"Ah.." said a soft, musical voice in surprise, and Luka looked up, saw a vaguely familiar elf, male, with red hair, holding another bowl of pine and crushed leaves from the smell of it. "You're awake."

"Where am I?" Luka mumbled, foggily. Her tongue felt thick and uncooperative.

The elf knelt, placed the bowl on the floor, taking out a cloth and dipping it in the medicinal bowl. "You're in the forest of the Nilveri."

"The forest of the Nilveri…?" Luka placed a hand to her spinning forehead as the elf gently moved her up to a sitting position, applying the healing salve to her back, which erupted in stinging fire at the contact from the wet cloth. Luka stifled a gasp and bore it, stoically. Her tolerance for pain had increased by quite a lot, during her tortures. "Why…"

"Your friends found you," said the elf quietly as he moved the cloth carefully on Luka's back.

"My…friends…" Luka had almost given up all hope of them ever finding her, and a small smile cracked her lips. "They found me? Where are they? Where's…where's Miku? How'd they escape?"

"I'm sure they will tell you soon," said the elf, looking vaguely amused. "In the meantime, you are still very weak. You should rest."

Luka nodded. Rest sounded good to her torture wracked body, and as the elf gently laid her back down on the bedroll Luka's mind occupied itself with wondering about her friends – how they were doing, if they were eating properly, if they were resting too, how they saved her. Slowly all of her memories were coming back to her. The Nilveri, Yukari's people…how did everyone get from the jail to the forest? Lily…how was she doing? Was she still traveling with them? And Miku…did she find out anything about herself, did she see the Broker? Luka hoped fervently that Miku did not come to some harm, while rescuing Luka.

"I will go and tell your friends that you have recovered," said the elf, getting up, but as he did Luka noticed a blur rushing towards her, and she stiffened. The blur stopped, at Luka's bedroll, and Luka saw that the person who had been rushing forward so urgently was Miku.

Luka's eyes widened, heart filling with happiness at the sight of her again. Miku looked radiant, with her deep teal hair, worried blue eyes, and porcelain skin, her lips curved up in a soft smile that Luka couldn't help but to return. It felt as though it had been ages since Luka had last seen her. She must've gone through a lot of adventures in Luka's absence.

"Luka," Miku whispered, her voice cracking a little. "Are you okay?"

Luka didn't want to worry her. "I'm fine! Recovering, but I should be okay soon! Oh…" Luka remembered her tortures, her missing ring finger, her ragged ear, the cuts on her face, now scars, and she looked down, suddenly feeling ugly, useless, and ashamed. Looking at her right hand, Luka realized that she couldn't steal or hold a sword as well as she used to. At least she didn't lose fingers on her left hand, but she preferred using her right over her left despite being ambidextrous - it seemed more convenient, especially since the shortsword she looted from the soldier had a right handed grip. Luka swallowed. How could she protect Miku now? "I guess...I won't be as much use anymore, huh?" she laughed, weakly. It hadn't really hit her until now. Luka had always relied on her deft and nimble fingers in her life as a thief, and now that she had only four fingers on her right hand...

Miku's eyes widened. "Luka, that's not true at all! Don't think that!"

Luka looked down. "B-but...my hand..."

"It's okay, Luka," said Miku, leaning in. She gently took Luka's hands in hers and Luka's breath caught, for some reason. "I...I believe in you. You can overcome it...you can train here!"

Luka bit her lip and looked up at Miku. "But...that'll take so long...who knows when I'll be good enough to wield a sword again?"

Miku opened her mouth to respond, but before she could say anything she was suddenly shoved aside and Luka felt warm arms encircling her in a hug.

"Luka!" cried Yukari as she practically throttled her, so enthusiastic was her hug. "It's great to see you awake again!"

"G-great to see you too, Yukari," Luka wheezed, wincing in pain as her back shot electric jolts of pain up and down her spine. "C-Could you let go of me?"

"Oh," Yukari gasped, hurriedly withdrawing, "I'm sorry...it's just, when I found you were awake I had to see you! It's been a really long time after all..." The elf looked a little embarrassed, her ears slightly drooped and her lips curved up in a sheepish smile, brow slightly wrinkled.

"It has," Lily agreed, and Luka looked over at her. The engineer was crouched next to Yukari, looking at Luka. She was smiling too, a little. "I'm glad to see that you're awake."

"How long was I out?" Luka asked.

"Eight days," Yukari answered instantly. "The healer told me that it was really close..." the elf suddenly looked incredibly morose, brow furrowing even more now. "If we were even a few seconds late, you would've died."

"W-what?" Miku scrambled to a sitting position and stared, aghast, at Yukari. "Th-the healer didn't tell me that!"

"If he told you then you'd probably have gone into hysterics," said Lily. "And, you know, we really don't need another outburst from you again."

Miku looked as though she had been struck, stiffening a little at Lily's words. "That was-"

"H-hey," Yukari quickly intervened. "That's in the past, you two...Miku was just really worried about Luka at the time. And maybe...maybe she was right to have done that...because if she didn't, then Luka would've died. We would've taken too long, talking to the guard and getting him under the glamor...what matters though is that Luka's alive now."

"A life for a life, eh," Lily said, quietly. "Anyways," she looked over at Luka, who was completely lost in the conversation. "You should take some time here to recover first, before we move on."

"Yes!" Miku said. "You should rest and recover here. And you can train too..."

Luka looked at Miku, Lily, and Yukari. Outburst? What outburst did Miku make? There was some tension between Miku and Lily that wasn't there before. Luka wanted badly to ask, but she knew that now was not the time, so she swallowed her questions and nodded. Her priority now was to get some coordination back. Coordination was, she knew, exceedingly important, especially in her past life as a thief.

"Okay," said Luka, her voice soft.

Yukari looked at her and smiled, kind. "I'll get some food for you, okay?" she got up to her feet and ran back into the wood, disappearing between trees, movements light and nimble. Lily stared after her for a bit before returning her attention to Luka.

"You went through a lot, didn't you?" Lily asked.

Luka nodded. "Yes. The torturers were not...kind..." Luka squeezed her eyes shut. She didn't like thinking about the tortures. She didn't want to think about the wails and screams of the others, she didn't want to relive her own pain, and watching the deaths of so many other people.

"Lily!" Miku hissed at her. "Don't talk about that!"

"I'm trying to find out more information about her captors," said Lily, irritated.

"We already know what we need to know," Miku said. "Meiko, Kaito, and the whole of Elphegort itself. They're all after me. You don't need to bring up painful memories of her tortures again! We already know!"

Lily scowled, but looked a little guilty nonetheless. "Yeah."

Luka bit her lip. "Um...it's okay, Miku...if anything helps, then..."

"No," Miku cut in, harshly. "I'm sorry, Luka. It's probably all too new and fresh in your memory for you to talk about it now. We'll wait."

"Oh. Um," said Luka.

"Food's here!" Yukari called as she lightly ran over to Luka holding a bowl of some kind of soup. It smelled heavenly to Luka's nose - for two months she had fed on nothing more than stale bread and water - so Luka grabbed the soup and gulped it down before she could even taste it, felt the nourishing liquid rush down her dry throat. When she finished Luka looked disappointedly at the empty bowl, and timidly she looked over at Yukari.

"Is there...any more?" Luka asked.

Yukari laughed. "Sure, you can have more! But you're not supposed to eat too much at the same time, so two more bowls, alright?"

Luka smiled and nodded. "Alright!"

-o-o-o-

"The elves," said Meiko, suddenly.

Kaito looked up from his food. "What? What about the elves?"

Meiko was silent, her brown eyes staring off into the distance, sitting on an old gray rock with her sword poised over her whetstone. She sharpened that thing lovingly every day. "What do you think about them?"

Kaito shrugged and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. "Well, they're just elves. They mind their own business, we mind our own business..."

Meiko smiled, thinly. "How far is your king willing to go, to capture this Harbinger?"

Kaito frowned. "Well, we're supposed to bring her and her friends back to the castle alive, remember? So it's not like we can just kill them or anything."

"Remember that elf girl they were with?" Meiko asked.

Kaito nodded, hesitant. "Yes..."

"When she escaped, she used an amulet," said Meiko, a small grin pulling up the corners of her mouth. "That amulet...I remember now. It's not just any ordinary teleportation amulet. Remember what the Broker told us, when we went to see him?"

"Yes, and I remember very well the payment he extracted," Kaito said, grumpy. His beloved collection of antique coins, all for the knowledge of who the elf was...hardly a fair trade, in his book.

"That elf, Yukari, isn't just any elf," said Meiko. "She's the princess of the Nilveri. Now think. Who would give her such an amulet? The elves are distrustful of humans, they think we're vulgar and ugly. The fact that the princess is traveling with them..." Meiko's brow furrowed. "I don't know why that is, but the elves are protective of offspring. They don't reproduce as quickly as humans, they live long, long lives. The father would give the daughter some amulet, something that she could call on in times of trouble, to take them home."

"So they're in the forests of the Nilveri!" Kaito's eyes lit up in comprehension.

"Exactly," said Meiko. "If we go in alone though, it'll be suicide. We'll be killed on sight. We need backup, a battalion."

"Wait," Kaito protested. "That would be war, marching into the elves' territory with a battalion."

"No," Meiko corrected. "We will only attack if the elves attack first, and we will make it very clear that we only need the Harbinger, the engineer, and the kid we captured. The princess can stay but the other three must come with us."

Kaito looked down at his hands. Meiko was a little strange, he thought. Surely they could ask the king to send a diplomat over to the elves and ask for the Harbinger. No need to resort to intimidation tactics.

As if Meiko read his mind, she shook her head. "No," she said, decisively. "Diplomacy won't work here."

"Why not?" Kaito asked.

Meiko smiled, and to Kaito's eyes it seemed terrifyingly empty. Nothing seemed to exist within Meiko's eyes other than some driving thirst for vengeance, and Kaito shuddered despite himself. "Because. Why waste time with diplomacy when a battalion speaks better?"

-o-o-o-

Luka tossed a ball up and down, catching it lightly in her left before sending it up again, catching it in her right. Juggling, she supposed. She used to juggle a lot for money. Back in Marlon, back when she was eleven, she would juggle on street corners for money, perform whatever tricks the crowd wanted her to do, for the money to buy food and live. As she got older less and less people gave her money for her juggling, and it didn't take long for the thievery to take over. Luka had always stole back then, but it was only after her juggling and other acrobatics tricks failed when she decided to steal full time.

"Up and down, up and down," Luka whispered as she walked in the woods. It was comforting, safe and secure here. Dependable oaks, mossy rocks, bushes with flowers and berries, the sound of nature all around her. Somewhere to her right Luka heard the sound of a bird twittering.

She was getting better. The food the elves fed her, the salves, they were making her stronger. They could never, of course, give her finger back, but her back no longer pained her as much as it did. She had been practicing more with the sword too. Yukari had graciously assigned her to a swordmaster and though he was a harsh trainer Luka found herself getting better and better.

Better. Yes. She was better. She had to be better to protect Miku. Amongst the four of them was an unspoken agreement that this was only for now. They had to leave soon so that the elves would not be harmed - so that the ones who had dogged the Harbinger for so long would not arrive and ruin everything. The king, Miku had told her. She looked so pained when she said that, so confused. The King wanted to kill her and the worst thing was that Miku didn't even really know _why_. Her voice sounded so choked when she said that that Luka, for one heart lurching moment, thought that the girl was going to cry. But she didn't.

Luka's heart ached for Miku. The girl was suffering so much and Luka couldn't do a thing for her. She swore to protect her, but how could Luka protect Miku from insecurities and fear and pain? Luka wanted to take Miku away from it all, from everything - she wanted those carefree moments in Lockben back - but she couldn't.

Burning with shame Luka slowly stopped juggling and only walked, until she got tired of that and returned to the main settlement of the elves. As she entered the village the elves stiffened in their activities, warily stared at Luka for long, agonizing seconds before looking back down at their work. Most of the elves disliked the humans taking up space in the settlement. Luka couldn't blame them. Their track record for safety wasn't exactly the best. Yukari, her father, Mew, all three of them got in heated arguments about letting Luka, Miku, and Lily stay here nearly every day. It was stressful, being so openly unwelcomed.

Luka walked through the elf settlement, suddenly feeling irritated, annoyed. She wanted to be alone again and so walked through the elf settlement to the more secluded lake, where, to her surprise, she saw Miku.

Miku was crouching by the lip of the lake, back facing Luka. She was dressed in her tattered blue and gold Crypton clothes, an eternal reminder of her home, and timidly Luka approached her and sat down next to her. Miku stiffened and looked at Luka, blue eyes wide.

Luka smiled, sheepishly. "Hi," she offered.

Miku stared at her for a few seconds and slowly relaxed. A small smile touched her face. "Hello," she said. "How are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm good!" Luka said, quickly, maybe a little too quickly. "I can juggle now. I only have one ball with me now, but..."

"You used to juggle, didn't you?" asked Miku. "You told me that back in Marlon."

Luka nodded. "Yeah. I could juggle a lot back then! Once I juggled six balls."

"Oh," said Miku. She looked at Luka, again. There was some kind of conflict in her face. Luka had noticed that Miku looked like that for a while now, around her - as though she had something to say, but couldn't quite manage to say it. Miku swallowed and forced her face away, looked down at the lake again. "That's impressive..."

"I suppose so," said Luka. "Hey...Miku?"

"Yes?"

"I'm...I'm sorry," Luka kept her eyes trained on the placid surface of the lake.

"Sorry?" Miku looked at Luka, confused. "Why?"

" I didn't really protect you very well," Luka admitted. "And I said I always would, right? But I let myself get captured-"

"No, Luka," Miku interrupted, alarmed. "You did protect me. They didn't know where we were, thanks to you, and that's how we were able to...to rescue you, in the end, right? You did protect me, Luka!"

"But...I mean, I wasn't there for you...you could've gotten hurt, back at the jail, you could've..."

"Luka," Miku hesitantly took Luka's hand in her own. "Please don't think about that...I didn't get hurt at all. You protected me, really you did! Even though you lost some things, in the process, you gave it up for me."

Luka felt a bitter smile touch her lips. "Yes," she said. "I'm all scarred up," she laughed, weakly. "Ugly, isn't it?"

There was a long silence, and Luka, worried a little, looked over at Miku. There was that conflict in her face again.

"Miku?" Luka asked.

"Um," said Miku. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath. "C-can I...t-tell you something?"

"Of course," said Luka, confused, worried. "Wh-what is it?"

Miku opened her eyes, looked at Luka's face. "I...I don't think you're ugly. I, um," Miku's cheeks colored and she looked down again. "I...I think you look, um, g-good. I...I think you're really pretty. Um, I...I think you're beautiful."

Luka was astonished. "W-what?" Disbelief colored her voice. "But, my back, my ear, I—"

"I don't care!" said Miku, hotly. "I think you're the most beautiful girl in the world!"

Now Luka was laughing. Miku was so endearing, trying to make Luka feel better about herself like this. Miku was, in Luka's eyes, infinitely more attractive than Luka ever could be, so the words coming out of Miku's mouth were, simply, unbelievable. "Miku! Thanks for trying to make me feel better, but there's no way I'm so good looking. You're ten times prettier than I am. But um, I...I really appreciate it," Luka laughed again, softer, and scratched the back of her head, sheepish. Her cheeks felt hot. "I'm...I'm happy that you'd go so far to try to make me feel better." Though a large part of her wished that Miku meant it, Luka didn't survive on wishing.

Miku looked frustrated, childishly so. As if she was going to start stomping her feet. "It's not just that! I want to make you feel better, but I think you're really pretty too! Even though you have scars, I still think you're beautiful. B-because, Luka," Miku swallowed, hard, "Luka, you've always been there for me. You're so kind and you always try to protect me. And when I saw you in Jiraun I was so scared and so angry, because you were so hurt."

Luka was completely taken aback. All she could do was stare at Miku as unfamiliar, warm happiness made its way through her body. "I..."

"So..." Miku looked at Luka's face again. "Luka, I...I love you."

Luka's heart felt as though it was about to burst. Her mind was filled with questions, insecurities. Miku loved her? Her? But Luka was a nobody. Luka was just a street rat and Miku was a noble. Not only that but she was a noble from the Crypton Tower.

"R-really?" Luka managed.

"Really," Miku nodded. "Um...I know how you say that...you're always going to protect me. But, um...Luka, I...I want to protect you too. Do you..." her blue eyes darted up, timidly, to Luka's. "Do you love me too?"

Love? Luka hadn't even dared to think the word, convinced that the gulf between them was too large. But now that Miku had said it, the inhibitions and mental barriers were shedding away. Luka swallowed. Her throat felt thick, uncooperative. Luka felt as though she was free-falling yet at the same time she felt happy too, unbearably so.

"You love me?" Luka asked again, just to make sure.

This time, doubt and fear crept into Miku's eyes. "Y-yes...I do...you...you don't love me back, huh-"

Luka interrupted her quickly with a kiss. Miku stiffened, and then, slowly, relaxed, returned it. It felt unfamiliar, new - Luka had never kissed anyone before, not really, but it felt good, nice - Miku's lips were soft and welcoming and Luka felt as though she could kiss her forever, but eventually she pulled back and rested her forehead against Miku's.

"Don't think that," whispered Luka. "I...I love you too. I was just...I never thought someone like you would...I never thought that someone like you would love me. But um...I love you, Miku. I really do."

Miku stared at Luka for a long moment before a smile broke out on her face and she clung to Luka, burying her head in her shoulder, and Luka hugged her back just as fiercely.

"I'm so happy," Miku whispered. "I'm so happy you do."

Luka's body felt hot with happiness and she couldn't stop the smile painted on her face. Holding Miku like this felt incredibly perfect and Luka's down mood from earlier was completely swept away. She had a sneaking feeling that even if her swordmaster insulted her during the lesson later that day she wouldn't mind. The feelings she had for Miku for so long but never dared to put a name to, until now, were running rampant in her. All Luka wanted was to stay like this forever. She wanted to convey this to Miku somehow, to let her know the depth of feeling Luka was experiencing, at the moment.

"I'm happy too," was all Luka's mouth could say, and somehow, it was enough. Miku laughed a little, burrowed deeper into the hug.

They stayed together like that for a long, long while.


	13. Chapter 13

"Just a few more days," Yukari said, eyes tightly shut as she placed her fingers on her pounding forehead. She didn't want to be stuck in a meeting, arguing with her father and Mew about her friends. "Please."

"No," said Mew, cold, harsh. "They have already stayed for too long. These humans corrupt our forest with their taint."

Yukari felt her lips pull back in a snarl at the insult to her friends, but she got a hold on herself. She glared at Mew. "They have corrupted _nothing._ Why can't you at least allow Luka to stay a couple more days to recover? She spent _months _being tortured and you all can't even allow her the courtesy of healing?" Every day it was the same arguments, but for all the effect it was having, it was like running into a brick wall.

"Yukari," said her father, head buried in hands. "Oh, how the humans have corrupted you..."

Yukari whirled around and glared at him. "They _haven't _corrupted me. I have seen cruelty in my travels, but we have also been cruel to the humans, before."

"We have never tortured," her father said, slowly, sadly. "Never."

Yukari laughed, bitterly. "Never tortured? Not in the way the humans have, but we have buried them alive, left them to the mercies of the forest. These trees weren't always trees. Sometimes," Yukari's voice dropped and she looked down at the carved oak table, "sometimes I hear them scream."

"The screams are from the humans cutting them down, invading our land," Mew interrupted. "These deformed mockeries, taking our home, forming hideous little towns, perverting nature..."

"That's not true!" Yukari's hands were in fists. "You're too blind, you can't even see how similar we are!"

"We are nothing like them," said her father.

Mew's eyes were sad, disappointed. "You have spent too much time with them...it was a mistake to have allowed you out of here in the first place."

Yukari gaped at her. "Wh-what? Neither of you ever took the time to talk with them-"

"We tried," said her father, wearily. "We tried and they slaughtered us. Never again will we be tricked by those beasts."

Yukari scowled. "According to the books I read, the elves were the ones who tried to drive the humans out of the only fertile land in Elphegort."

"Humans always rewrite things to make them seem better," Mew sniffed. "And we are getting off the topic. These humans in our forest need to leave. Their stench invades my nose even here. They must leave. Now."

Yukari scowled at her. "No. They're my friends."

Mew glanced at Yukari's father, and he nodded. Mew took a deep breath and turned to Yukari, eyes suddenly gentle and understanding.

"The humans have bewitched you," said Mew, softly. "Don't worry. We will make things right. Ask your friends to leave and things will end well. They will be safe."

Yukari met her eyes levelly, and when she spoke her voice brooked no argument. "No. Two more days."

Mew's eyes hardened. "Too long. They leave now."

-o-o-o-

Luka and Miku were still sitting together by the lake, feeling comfortable, safe even. In this magical place it seemed as though nothing could possibly harm them. In Luka's mind, Meiko and Kaito were miles away. All that mattered was the here, and now, and how she was with Miku, and how they had just confessed to each other. The serenity was thick in Luka's chest. The forest really did smell nice, she thought, dreamily. She could stay here forever.

Turning to Miku Luka opened her mouth to say something, but then Miku stiffened, eyes wide and alert, darting about. After a few milliseconds Miku got to her feet, yanking Luka up.

"We have to go," Miku said. "It's not safe here."

Luka could hardly believe her ears. "Not safe? What are you talking about? Look!" Luka spread her arms and gestured at the healthy green forest around them. "Where could there possibly be a safer place than this?"

Miku barely spared the forest a glance. "It's not safe. Luka, we have to get Lily and leave."

Luka frowned. She trusted Miku, but for some reason, she didn't want to leave the forest. It smelled so nice here, and the water looked so welcoming. Luka stared longingly at the clear blue surface. It looked fun to swim in. "Miku, stop it. You're just paranoid again."

"No," said Miku, her voice low, wary. "No."

Luka rolled her eyes and let go of Miku's hand. "Well, I'm going to go for a swim," said Luka, walking over to the calm, placid lake. She glanced back at Miku, but Miku was rigid. Luka shrugged and easily shrugged off her shoes before seeing _something _in the water. A blink later, it was gone.

Luka shook her head and stared at the water. Once again, the clear surface of it beckoned. Luka felt that desire creep in her mind again, and smiling at the water, finding it so much like a friend, or a brother even, she reached out. Her hand hovered over the surface and as she drew it near, there it was again. The _something _that was gone in a blink of an eye.

"Luka," said Miku, voice low. "We should go."

Luka's mind felt as though it was stuck in a pink haze. Miku's words were foggy in her mind. "Wait..."

"Luka, there's no time," said Miku. "We _have _to go. Put on your shoes."

Luka slowly reached for her shoes, but they seemed a million miles away. Her mind felt as though it was drowning. "I...I can't."

"Why not!" Miku's voice was high, agitated. "Come on, Luka!"

"I can't reach my shoes," Luka whispered, eyes wide. Her nose felt clogged, as well as her throat. "I can't reach my shoes, I can't...I can't..." Luka realized and her hands shot up to her throat. "Can't breathe."

Miku was there as quick as a flash and dragged Luka away from the lake, forcing her shoes on. The farther Luka was from the lake, the more her throat and nose eased, the easier she could move. When they were a good distance away, Luka immediately shot up to her feet, all thoughts of staying forgotten. The forest, which once looked so welcoming, no longer looked so.

"Wh-what _was_ that?" Luka stammered, hand over the hilt of her sword.

"The forest," said Miku, slowly, realization dawning on her face. "The elves. We have to escape."

Luka nervously looked around at the looming trees. In the distance, she thought, she heard screaming, and shivers ran up and down her spine at the sound. "Wh-where's Lily? We have to rescue her!"

"Back at the village," said Miku, and immediately the two of them ran for the village, but as they did, a thick, suffocating mist engulfed them. The mist, thought Luka wildly, was definitely not there before. The air itself smelled old and musty, and soon enough Luka could not even see the trees. She could hear Miku behind her and, for an instant, feared that they could get separated in the mist. Luka quickly drew her blade with her left hand and stayed close to Miku.

"Miku?" she asked, timidly into the mist.

"I'm here," said Miku, quietly. A nervous hand grabbed onto Luka's right, and Luka squeezed it reassuringly.

"What's with this fog?"

"I...I don't know," said Miku, helplessly. "Th-there's some kind of spell. The elves don't want us in, and-ah!"

"What is it?" Luka stammered, turning around, still holding onto Miku's hand, and saw through the thick fog some kind of thorned vine, snaked around Miku's leg, _pulsing_. Immediately Luka slashed at it, and as the vine broke she saw a glint of red in the break. A glint of red...

Luka's breath hitched. Blood? Vines _bleed_? Miku's breath was shaky now and Luka saw that part of the vine was still wrapped around her leg, and gently Luka cut it off. It fell without resistance and Luka saw four small puncture marks on Miku's ankle.

"We need to go," Luka whispered, and immediately she ran, still holding tightly onto Miku's hand. They crashed through the fog, branches and bushes whipping Luka's face, the vines, sentient, conspiring to trip the two up. Luka's face was cut, bleeding, but she didn't stop running. The fog seemed to stretch on endlessly and Luka began to, to her alarm, tire, her breaths heavy and legs burning. Even Miku sounded a little ragged, now, but they kept running, kept running until their feet no longer touched soft dirt but instead, soggy undergrowth. Moisture pervaded the mist and fog.

"Wh-where are we?" Luka said into the fog.

Miku was practically huddled behind Luka now. "I don't know..."

Luka took a deep breath of the wet air. She had to be brave, she told herself. Brave for Miku. That in mind, she stepped deeper into the fog, Miku in tow.

-o-o-o-

"Lily," said Yukari, softly, walking towards Lily. The engineer was hunched over a map in the cabin, blue eyes scanning it restlessly. Gently, Yukari put a hand on Lily's shoulder. "Lily...we have to leave now."

Lily looked up at her, not very surprised. "Elves finally told us to get out, huh?" she got up, rolled up the map. "Did you tell Luka and Miku?"

Yukari shook her head. "I...I haven't seem them. Not anywhere in the village, and I've already looked. You don't think they're in the forest, do you?"

"The forest?" Lily echoed, eyes narrowing in suspicion. "What's wrong with the forest?"

Yukari hesitated, conflict written all over her elfin face.

Lily was beginning to get worried now, and her voice reflected her urgency. "Yukari. What's wrong with the forest?"

"There's a mist," said Yukari, quietly. "A mist in the forest. Activated when the king says so. The forest...the forest eats people when the mist comes. If they're in the forest, then..."

"How could a forest eat people?" Lily stammered.

"It makes them part of it," said Yukari, eyes slightly glazed. "A tree, maybe, or a deer. Or part of the mist. We don't activate it often. Because the forest eats elves too. But in war the mist has always been our greatest defense."

"Luka and Miku are in there," said Lily, suddenly horribly aware of this. "Why would your king activate the mist? Why can't he just tell us to leave, no bloodshed or crazy people-eating forest?"

Yukari was trembling and her ears were down. She looked as though she was about to cry. "Because," Yukari stammered. "Because it's all my fault. I wanted you all to stay, an extra two days at least, but then my father and Mew s-said that...that..." Yukari started to cry in earnest now. "That I was 'too attached' n' that I...I have to be taught that...survival...humans aren't worth anything if they don't listen or if they don't survive or something, I f-forgot but it's all my fault, I should've just agreed and...and-"

Lily suddenly brought the elf girl close to her in a hug. "It's not your fault," Lily said, quietly, blue eyes staring into the forest. "It's not your fault at all. But...we need to go. Now."

"Into the forest?" Yukari asked.

Lily swallowed. The forest looked threatening, despite its apparent tranquility, now that Lily knew the truth of it. But Miku and Luka were in there. "Has anyone ever left the mist alive?"

"I don't know," said Yukari, softly.

Lily frowned and she pulled away from the hug, grabbed her pack and food, checked her weapons. "Okay."

Yukari looked at her. "What're you doing?"

"We're going to rescue them," said Lily, throwing Yukari's bow at her and walking over to open door. The forest loomed, but Lily did not allow herself to feel fear. She glanced back at Yukari. "Are you ready? You don't have to come, if you don't want to."

Yukari stared down at the bow and then at Lily. In her lilac eyes was determination, strength. "I'm ready. Let's go."


	14. Chapter 14

The mist was suffocating as Luka and Miku pressed cautiously on. Miku was, for her part, afraid. The Voice, which had told her to get out of the forest, was silent now, and Miku did not know where to go or what to do. Her ankle ached from where the vines wrapped around it, and Miku clung closer to Luka. Luka was trying so hard to be brave that Miku felt miserable, even a little guilty, though why, she could not say. She only tried to be brave herself, and she wished she had a sword with her, or a spear, something concrete and deadly to hold.

Their footsteps squelched in the boggy ground, and the mist seemed to thicken, to spread even more. Luka's silhouette grew even thinner, and it seemed as though the mist was trying to build a wall to separate them. Miku clenched even tighter onto Luka's hand as they walked, and looking down Miku saw gray floor, her boots sinking into the ground as she walked, making squelching noises whenever she took a step, lifted it from the ground. The mist was thicker than thick now, a physical, palpable, wet presence, sinking into Miku's skin, and she shuddered with cold. The only noise now was the noise of squelching.

"Luka?" Miku whimpered, to make sure she was there.

"I'm here," Luka replied, her voice sounding as though it was coming from far away. Her hand squeezed Miku's. "I'm here."

It seemed the further they penetrated into the fog, the thicker it became. Miku had a wild thought in her head, a ridiculous one - what if the fog grew so thick they couldn't walk through it? What if it became something like a...a wall of mist, physical, impenetrable?

Miku looked down at the floor, tried to calm her breathing, her heart pumping in her ears. Then, she saw something strange and white, sticking out from the ground. When Miku realized what it was, her bones chilled.

A human skull. A human skull, lying there, half submerged in the ground, sinking and bubbling in the gray mush they were walking on. There was a rusted sword, rotting leather armor close by, and Miku gasped, sharply.

"What?" Luka asked. "What is it?"

"A skull," Miku said, her voice tremulous, knees knocking together. Her eyes were fixed on empty eye sockets, on the blackness of death there. "A human skull. Luka, I...I want to go back, m-maybe we can go back to the clearing," hot tears formed in Miku's eyes and she wiped them with the back of her hand.

"Miku," Luka said. Miku felt Luka envelope her in a hug, and Miku clung to her, relieved that Luka was here, physical, warm. "Miku...we can't go back. We can't even see where we're going."

Miku was shaking. "But...! But at least in the clearing, we could see!" her voice was raised, loud, but then she heard it.

Distant at first, but steadily growing louder, the sound of wailing. Wailing so wretched with pain Miku could feel the wails rattling around in her body, painful to her heart and ears. The mist began to build and Miku saw shades of gray, in the mist, floating, and when she focused more she saw that the shades had _shapes_, shapes building upon themselves and becoming more and more solid until they were humanoids of all shapes and sizes, elves and dwarves and gnomes and humans, some old, some young, some fat, some thin, all of them swirling round and round Luka and Miku, their wails piercing them like arrows.

"We...we should run," Luka said. She grabbed Miku's hand and ran, Miku stumbling to catch up, and the wraiths wailed and sobbed and ran with them, streaming along in the mists. Wails became whispers then, echoing all around Luka and Miku, whispers that Miku couldn't quite make out, whispers, hisses, and even laughter, echoing all around them, drilling into Miku's mind. She kept her eyes forward, on Luka, who was running like a girl possessed.

But then Miku heard her.

"Miku," whispered a voice, a voice that was painfully familiar, and Miku's steps slowed, a little. The voice then grew a little stronger. "Miku."

Miku looked around wildly for the source, saw only the same wraiths, but then, on her left, she saw her - Miki.

"Ah," Miku gasped. Miki was there, so real, so tangible. Her red hair, her innocent eyes, even that sprig of hair on her head. She was deathly pale but still Miki. "M-Miki?"

Miki smiled at her and held out her hand, beckoning. Voices filled Miku's head, crowded everything out. Miki was here - Miki was alive. And she was promising that if Miku came with her, took her hand, then she would escape. Everything would be better. There were other friends here too, other people from the Tower. They had been regrouping here, waiting for Miku. All her old friends, here, waiting, everyone, here for her. For Miku. Miki promised fun, company, warmth, escape.

Miku was weakening. Her fingers slowly loosened their grip from Luka's. Miki was here, her best friend from the Tower. Everything would be okay now. Part of Miku knew that if she went to her, it would all be over. All the running, all the fear, all the pain - everything. She would spend forever here with her Crypton friends and never worry about anything again, ever.

"Miku, stay with me!" Luka yelled, but her yell seemed a long, long way away, but then her face flashed in Miku's mind - worried and panicked and _afraid_- and lucidity rushed back into Miku's head. She found that she was no longer holding onto Luka's hand, and, terrified, she looked around, breaths fast, heart beating like a jackhammer, but then she saw her - a vague silhouette in the mist - and to her horror the mist was drawing together, like a curtain, hiding Luka away from Miku's sight.

"_No_!" Miku screamed. She can't lose Luka, not here, not now! She ran wildly towards Luka, hand out. "Luka!" she almost tripped over some branches and fallen trees, so conveniently placed it seemed as though they were there to trip her, to trap her. She felt cold fingers trail down her arm as she ran, the wraiths, and Miku waved them away as best she could as she ran towards the shadow in the mist. "_Luka_!" her breaths were fast, panting. Miki was next to her, her face mournful, and Miku actually felt, crazily, a sting of regret before she waved that away, continued running. "Luka, wait!" her scream was desolate in the mist. "_Wait!_"

The shadow was fading and panic completely suffused Miku's body. She couldn't lose Luka. She couldn't. Not here. Not here. She had to stay with her. Had to. Echoes were all around her, trying to distract her, but Miku didn't let herself be distracted. She just ran, ran like she never had before, trying to catch up with Luka, who seemed so far away now, so, so far away, and Miku cursed herself for having been so _stupid_, so tempted by the mist's tricks. Miki was dead, she reminded herself, harshly. Because of the soldiers. Because of the king. Everyone from the Tower was, _everyone_, except Miku.

"Luka!" Miku was half-sobbing now. "D-don't go!" she was still running and the shadow was only getting further and further away. "Luka, _don't leave me_!"

But then, the shadow faded. Faded over completely, hidden by the mist. Miku slowly stopped running, breaths fast, eyes wide and panicked. She lost Luka. She _lost Luka! _Where would she go now? Trembling, Miku looked all around, saw the wraiths grinning gleefully at her. Then she saw Luka's shadow again, started after it, but then she saw another shadow, and another, all heading in different directions, and Miku whirled round and round, trying to figure out which one was Luka.

"Luka!" Miku screamed, again and again, until the Voice told her to shut up, to calm down. To think, otherwise, the Voice said, they would all be lost. Miku swallowed her rising panic, pushed it away, and thought as hard as she could, until she looked down and saw her answer.

_Footprints_. Luka's footprints, rapidly being filled in by the wet, squishy earth, but still there, still visible. Miku followed them, running, trying to keep track of them before the earth filled them completely. Followed them until she crashed right into Luka, who whirled around in alarm, but instantly relaxed when she saw it was Miku.

"Miku, where _were_ you?" Luka yelled, but then she quickly calmed down and got a hold on herself. She took a deep breath. "I...I was calling your name, over and over, but you didn't say anything."

Miku swallowed. "I was calling your name too, but...you didn't answer."

Luka looked around, blue eyes narrow and, Miku saw, slightly red with tears. "It's this mist. It's messing with us, trying to separate us..." her right hand firmly clasped Miku's again, and Miku was all too happy to hold it. "We...we need to keep moving. We have to get out."

Miku nodded, rubbed at her own tears. "Okay."

Then they came again. Dozens, then hundreds, crowding the mist, filling the air with wails, screams, shouts, whispers, cries, laughter. Disembodied heads parading around Luka and Miku, jeering. Fairies, looking wild and feral, howled and shrieked at them. Dark shadows of animals stalked them in the mist. Miku was barely aware of when she started moving with Luka again. Cold, wispy fingers were running up and down Miku's arms, her face, creeping over her mouth and nose, stroking her cheek, threading through her hair, touching her clothes.

A little girl with holes for eyes appeared beside Miku, hanging there like a stuffed dummy, mouth open in a scream. She was dressed in a tattered white dress and Miku tried to wave her away. Her arm went through her and the girl giggled madly, and Miku tried to wave her away more but the girl's giggles only escalated to shrieks of mad laughter.

I can't do this, Miku thought to herself, wildly, scared. I can't, I can't do this, I can't. "Oh God," her voice said, choked. All she wanted to do was run, run away, run out of this crazed madhouse, get out of the cold, insane mist.

No, said the Voice. If you run, you will die. And Luka wasn't running. Luka must be just as scared as Miku but she wasn't running, she was walking, steadily and slowly. If Luka could be so brave, the Voice said, so could Miku. So Miku tried her best to quiet her fears, to push them away. She looked at Luka, who was striding through the mist, scared, sure. Scared like Miku. But not running. No. Her sword was out and she was wary but she wasn't running. She was being brave. Being brave for Miku.

Miku felt her love for Luka rush up in her again, warm in her heart, and all of a sudden she saw what the mist was trying to do. It was just trying to trick her; just trying to deceive her. Just trying to scare and confuse, to get them off the path. But Miku kept her eyes forward, plodded on - slow and steady.

Soon enough, the wraiths disappeared. Soon enough, the mist faded to an ordinary gray. The ground became solid again and Miku could hear the wind. Luka too seemed heartened by this, straightening up a little and squeezing Miku's hand. Finally the mist thinned and Miku could make out the edges of tree trunks.

They were out of the mist.

-o-o-o-

Yukari and Lily too had managed to brave the mist, but they emerged in an altogether different place than Miku and Luka did - not a forest clearing, but rather, a rough road lined with old oaks and redwood.

The first thing Lily did was fall to her knees. She was soaked in sweat and the horrors of the mist were still fresh in her mind. She had seen her father in there - seen her father and her uncle, and when Yukari pulled her away from them Lily had screamed, had tried to escape, to run back to them, but then her father and uncle transformed into hideous beasts, scaled monstrosities with tails the size of trees.

Lily had spent the rest of the trek following Yukari, eyes wild and haunted as she mechanically followed her to get out. Yukari was looking around, purple eyes puzzled.

"Are they still in there?" she whispered, looking back at the trees behind them. There was no trace of the mist they had braved, but Lily knew that if they were to go back into the trees, they would meet the mist again, and this time, Lily was sure, she would not survive. She felt incredibly sick, profoundly so, and nausea racked her body.

"I don't think so," Lily managed, placing a clammy hand on an oak. She wasn't sure, but she didn't want to go back in there. She wasn't strong enough to go back in there, at least, not now. She felt as though she had just come back from the dead. All she wanted to do was rest somewhere.

Yukari looked around, uneasily. "We should keep moving. We are still in the forest. It is not safe here. Not yet."

Lily hissed in irritation at that knowledge, but she got herself back onto her feet, unsteadily, Yukari helping her up. Looking forward, they continued walking down the road. Vines slithered down, attacked the two, but Lily slashed at them with her knife and they retreated, spilling bright red blood on the ground. Wolves tracked the two, golden eyes suspicious and wary, yet in them Lily read human intelligence, and shivered. That, she knew, could be her. Would be, if she wasn't careful in this sadistic forest.

Yukari continued walking, the elf's movements graceful and sure in the forest, although her eyes were wary, looking for any sign of movement, any sign of danger. She held loosely her bow, and her other hand hovered over the hilt of her knife. Lily was equally wary. They walked on until the road disappeared, walked on until the area opened up to a vast clearing, green grass on the floor, flowers and bushes surrounding the perimeter. It was a perfect place to rest, thought Lily. Too perfect.

Yukari gasped. "Miku! Luka!" she ran over to them, and Lily noticed that Miku and Luka were dazedly standing near the left entrance to the clearing. A smile broke Lily's face and she ran to them too.

"Hey, you two," Lily said, raising her hand. Luka looked at her, smiled, and waved at her. Miku was nervously clinging onto Luka. As she neared them Lily caught the wet, thick smell of the mist. "So you two escaped?"

"It was hard," Luka laughed, softly, and looked down at Miku. Miku looked back at her, smiled at her tremulously, before turning her teal gaze onto Lily.

"We need to get out," said Miku. "I don't know what's going on, but...the mist...the elves don't want us here anymore. They mean to trap us in the forest and kill us, I'm sure of it."

Yukari was looking down at her hands. "Yes," she said, softly. "We are now in the forest...and the mist is activated. It is dangerous here. We need to get out."

"Don't you know the exit?" Luka asked. "You're the princess, right? You should know this area better than anybody."

Yukari smiled, painfully. "The forest changes, when the mist is here. It changes, tries to trick you and trap you."

"So," said Lily. "Basically we're lost."

Yukari looked down. "Yes."

"There has to be a way out of here..." Luka closed her eyes, placed two fingers to her forehead. "Has to..."

"Can we rest first?" Miku asked. "We're all tired...and going into the forest unprepared is a recipe for trouble. How about here?" she gestured at the clearing.

Lily frowned. "Is there anywhere safe enough to rest in?" she asked Yukari.

Yukari looked around. "...the clearing should be safe. We can rest here. But be on your guard, everyone."

Lily nodded and sat down, carefully, under a heavy oak tree. Her legs felt as though they were about to give out and welcomed the rest. Luka and Miku were sitting next to each other, looking sleepy, Miku's head on Luka's shoulder as Luka whispered to her. Lily's brow creased. They looked like lovers. Did something happen between them? Next to Lily Yukari sat with a heavy sigh, and the four of them caught their breaths and did their best to ready themselves for the forest, and the dangers that lie within.


	15. Chapter 15

Luka shivered. The cold chill of the mist was still in her bones, and although she did not feel as nauseous and exhausted as before, she still felt tired. Miku was cuddled up next to her, eyes closed as she breathed evenly, napping. Luka smiled at the sight and kissed her on the forehead. She could do that now - they were lovers. Luka could hardly believe that Miku had chosen someone like her. She felt immensely thankful, and the fact that her arm was falling asleep from Miku's weight didn't bother her at all.

Luka sucked in a deep breath. The mist, she thought, was strange. Miku had seemed tempted by something back there, calling out the name 'Miki' and letting go of Luka's hand, and when Luka searched for her, the mist seemed to prevent them from meeting somehow. But no such temptations visited Luka. Perhaps it was because Luka had never made any attachments in her life, other than Miku, Yukari, and Lily. The mist had been confusing, frightening, but Luka saw no old friends in the wraiths, and a part of her, the staunchly realistic girl brought up on the streets of Marlon, knew that the mist was nothing but a bunch of tricks trying to confuse them.

Lily and Yukari were asleep too, Luka thought, looking at them as they slept, backs against a tree. Luka was the only one awake and though she wanted to sleep, she was none too eager for some danger to pounce on them while they were sleeping. Her fingers crept over the hilt of her sword, gripped it. Slowly, Luka got up and rubbed her sleeping arm, winced at the pins and needles feeling of it but didn't stop until her right arm was fully functional again. Then, she looked around the clearing. Quiet, peaceful, beautifully green. The afternoon sun lit through the canopy of trees, spilled light on the center of the clearing. Bushes rimmed the perimeter of the clearing, as well as trees.

Luka's eyes narrowed. It was perfect. A little too perfect. Her eyes threatened to droop, and tiredness grasped her arms and body, mind whispering that she should sleep now, she was tired and paranoid and wouldn't it be nice to curl up with Miku and sleep? Luka found herself taking a heavy step towards Miku, eyes barely able to keep themselves open. She felt as though she was walking through water, wading.

She fought against it as her mind slowly realized what was happening. It was perfect. _Too perfect_. The grass was nicely cushioned under her boots and would make a perfect place to rest in, the sun was warm enough for one to rest comfortably without a blanket, but there was danger here, acute danger. Running over to Miku, Luka grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.

"Wake up!" Luka cried, suddenly becoming awfully aware of what was happening. "Miku, wake up!"

Miku did not stir. Trembling, Luka placed a hand on Miku's chest, checked for a heartbeat. There it was. Slow and ponderous.

Luka swallowed thickly. "Up we go," she whispered as she pulled Miku onto her back, wincing as pain and fire shot up and down it. Miku was heavier than she thought and her back had not yet been fully healed from her tortures, but Luka had no time to consider her own personal health. She had to protect Miku. Luka ran over to Yukari and Lily next, looked at them helplessly, grabbed them by the packs they still wore, and slowly dragged them out of the clearing.

Ten minutes later Luka's arms felt as though they were on fire, her back was screaming, and everyone was still asleep. She was still tired, near exhausted, from the mist ordeal, and all her body wanted to do was rest, but Luka didn't let it. Sweat rolled down Luka's face as she panted, struggled to get them all to someplace safe, but every tree, every flower, every twig, every leaf seemed to hold unlimited peril. Luka could hear through her tortured breathing, her erratic heartbeat, the slithering sound of vines.

"Shit," Luka whimpered, her voice trembling with effort. "Wake up..."

Out of the corner of her eye, Luka saw movement. She stiffened, stilled, and saw, climbing down an old red tree, a vine, snakelike, red thorns embedded on it.

"Oh god," Luka gasped, and redoubled her efforts. Her back hurt incredibly now but Luka continued dragging and pulling Lily and Yukari, Miku still on her back, away from the clearing. The vine seemed to sense her weakness and exhaustion, for it was slow and almost casual as it slithered over to her. Out of the trees came more vines, resembling the tentacles of some sleeping undersea beast, except they weren't in the sea, they were in a forest, a crazy murderous forest with vines that bled when cut and wraiths screaming in mists.

The vines were getting closer now and gulping Luka let go of Yukari for a moment to grab her sword. She waved it around, almost wildly, as the vines converged hungrily onto them. One of the vines neared Yukari's sandaled feet and Luka quickly cut it apart. It spurted red blood onto Yukari's sandals. Another vine went for Lily's face, but Luka struck at that one also. But the more she fought, the more vines appeared.

It was hopeless, Luka was realizing, slowly. Hopeless. They would all die here because they weren't careful enough. They just had to rest in that stupid clearing and everyone fell asleep except Luka, and Luka was beginning to realize now how much death was like sleep. The vines slithered towards them and Luka slashed at them but there was only so much she could do. She then felt a vine wrap around her ankles, then another one, and then Luka felt fire around them. It was unbearable, like being stung by fifty, no, a hundred hornets, and Luka screamed and, to her horror, fell. Her face hit the dirt floor, the sleeping Miku falling too, and Luka choked on the dirt, spat it out, tried to get up, tried to slash at the vines, but her sword had been knocked out of her grip, had slid down out of her reach, and Luka tried to crawl over but the vines held fast. The more she moved, the deeper the thorns dug.

"No," Luka choked out, eyes wide. She can't fail here. She can't. She had to protect Miku and everyone, and they were all sleeping, and without Luka awake, the vines would devour them, or suck them dry, or worse. Bitter tears stung Luka's eyes and angrily she wiped them away. She can't fail. Not here. Not now.

But it seemed more and more that she will. Vines wrapped round and round her legs, _pulsing_, and Luka thought she knew, finally, the source of red blood in the vines. Bile rose in her throat and she struggled to choke it down, struggled to move forward, but the vines held fast and tore at her legs mercilessly. Luka cried out, a red haze of pain seizing her mind. She saw, to her horror, the vines slithering over Yukari and Lily too.

'No!" she screamed. "No! No! Wake up!" she was half-sobbing now. "_Wake up_! Someone...ah!" Luka yelped as a vine slithered up her right arm and wrapped around that too. The vines were taking her blood, Luka realized. Her blood.

Dark spots appeared at the edges of her vision, and an immense lethargy took over her. Her breaths became gasping, desperate. Her heartbeat slowed as the vines pulsed.

"Miku," Luka whispered. But the whisper was so faint she doubted that Miku could've heard it at all. She had no more strength in her limbs to move. Maybe it would be better if she just surrendered to the darkness crowding in on her vision. Maybe it would be. It would be so nice to rest - to fall asleep and forget about everything. The darkness was so warm and comforting. Maybe it would be better. Maybe.

Luka closed her eyes and her head fell to the dirt floor, limp.

-o-o-o-

Miku was sitting in her room in the Crypton Tower, with her friends. They were all smiling and laughing as they talked about trivialities, but Miku was happy and content nonetheless. Miki was talking to her about a new book she read and Miku was happily listening to the sound of her best friend's dulcet voice. She felt some shaking for some reason, but she didn't want to follow the source. It was too peaceful here. Too happy.

Then, she heard far off screaming. Miku stiffened, looked around, but she saw only her friends and she relaxed. Miki was still talking and Piko was trying to flirt with Miku and it was just like old times, just like old times.

She heard her name being called then, in some strange whisper. The voice sounded familiar. Miku's brow furrowed in perplexment and she looked around, but she could see no source of it. But the voice wouldn't leave her mind, and it pushed at her memory. So familiar, she thought. The voice was so familiar.

"Someone's calling me," Miku told Miki and Piko.

Piko laughed. "Well, I'm more important than some dumb voice. I'm going to be your husband!"

Miku weakly chuckled at that but that voice stayed in Miku's mind, echoing, over and over, pushing against her memory until the wall gave.

Luka. Miku's eyes widened. Luka was calling her. Quickly Miku got to her feet and looked around, wildly, but she saw no Luka. Luka wasn't in the room but Miku had by now realized that the source of the screaming was Luka. Miku's breaths were fast and agitated. Where was she? Miku ran towards the door but then Miki and Piko were there.

"Where are you going?" Miki asked, blue eyes suspicious.

"I have to find Luka," Miku told them, desperately.

"Who's Luka?" Piko was puzzled.

"She's the one I love," Miku said. "I need to see her."

Miki's eyes narrowed. "But Luka's just a dumb lowborn, isn't she?"

"I'm so much better!" Piko said, arrogantly pounding his chest with his fist. "I can ride horses and fight ten times better than she can! And you can't be in love with her, you're supposed to marry me!"

Miku scowled. Piko's bragging seemed irritating now, and her blood boiled to hear Miki insult Luka like that. "I don't care! Get out of the way!"

Miki and Piko would not move. Miku's head ached with irritation. They weren't moving. Why weren't they moving? Miku had to save Luka.

Growling, Miku pushed Miki and Piko aside and pushed the door open. Bright light flooded in, and Miki, Piko, everyone else screamed. The Crypton Tower melted away and Miku awoke, gasping and panting, on Luka's back. She looked around. Charred vines were all around them, looking as though they had been set on fire. Yukari and Lily were mumbling in uneasy sleep. They were no longer in the clearing, Miku realized as she looked around. They were on a dirt road in the forest.

"What happened..." Lily mumbled as she got up, rubbing her head, and Yukari yawned sleepily before her eyes caught sight of Luka. The elf froze.

"Luka," she whispered, choked.

Miku eyes widened and she hurriedly clambered off of Luka's back, suppressed a gasp. Luka was deathly pale. Miku quickly took hold of her hand, felt for a pulse - there it was, slight, but a pulse nonetheless. Relief flooded through Miku - Luka was still alive.

Miku's eyes looked at Luka's arm, then at her legs. Puncture marks were all over them, puncture marks from the vines, and Miku's breath caught. She turned to Yukari and Lily.

"Get the salves," she ordered, her voice tight.

Yukari already had them out, was already applying them to Luka. "That clearing," Yukari said, slowly. "It made us...fall into some enchanted sleep."

Miku stared at Luka, who was unconscious and pale and looked as though she was about to die. Tears blurred Miku's vision and she looked down.

"L-Luka's not going to die, is she?" Miku asked Yukari.

Yukari shook her head. "No, she needs to rest. She didn't lose that much blood, she's just exhausted. I can't blame her, after the mist's ordeals, dragging us all here, and fighting off the blood-sucking vines. She should be awake soon, though." Yukari smiled at Miku, trying to be reassuring.

Miku stared at Luka. The girl had gone through so much, and for...for what? For someone like Miku? Miku wasn't worth this. Lily and Yukari talked, quietly, in low whispers, before the two lifted Luka up and walked down the road. Miku wiped her tears and followed.

Strangely, no vines attacked them as the four made their way through the forest, and it was only with the grimmest of satisfaction when the four finally walked out of the forest into some great field that seemed to roll on forever. Miku nervously checked on Luka's condition. The girl had some more color in her cheeks and her heartbeat was stronger now. Miku smiled, relieved. Yukari's salves and magic really did do the trick.

"We should get to a town," Lily said, quietly. "Get a room at an inn."

Yukari nodded. "There should be a town near," she said.

Miku said nothing, only followed the three as they walked. What seemed like hours later, they finally reached a town - a small one, a village more like. There were a few houses made of stone and wood, chickens pecking at the dirt as stone-faced people pushed wagons of hay and rock. Soon enough the four found lodging at The Cock And Bull.

Yukari and Lily decided to go out to buy food, and Miku dully nodded, staying close to Luka, hand tightly gripping hers. The girl was breathing evenly, in and out. Miku stared at her. She was so strong, so brave.

Miku raised a trembling hand up to brush Luka's warm cheek. "I'm sorry," Miku whispered. She kissed Luka, slowly, gently, on the lips. "I'm so sorry."

When she withdrew, she saw Luka stir a little before, slowly, her eyes opened and she looked at Miku. A slow smile spread on her face.

"Hey," said Luka, softly. "What are you sorry for?"

Miku just stared at her before she burst into tears, and Luka, seeming to understand, drew her into a hug.

-o-o-o-

It was a few days later and the king of the elves was disconsolate. His daughter was gone, had gone, ran off with those humans that he had tried so hard to warn her against. His only daughter, gone. She was always too flighty, too optimistic, more like a fairy than an elf, the king thought, bitterly. She knows nothing of the cruelty humanity can, and will, inflict on an innocent soul like her.

There was a sharp knock on his door and the king sighed. Mew, most likely. The woman's been itching for war against the humans ever since the king could remember, and with this latest insult the king was sure that she would be insisting upon it again.

"Yes?" he said, wearily, turning around.

The door opened, but the person who entered was not Mew. No. It was a human, a human female, face still green from the nausea-inducing effects of resurfacing from the mist, followed by a human man with tangled blue hair who looked just as woozily nauseous, and outside the window the king saw a host of humans, around ten, more or less. They looked an incompetent bunch with their faces sick like that, wobbling in their saddles.

The human woman glared at the king. "I lost twenty men out there in your damn mist, and out of my remaining ones all were nauseous, five _died _after _vomiting _of all things, and only a few remain. More than half died in there. Now," the human strode over to the king, a savage-looking longsword already drawn, her brown eyes glaring. "Tell me. Where is the Harbinger?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," the king said, and it was the truth. So the humans had finally invaded - it was only a matter of time. Mew had been right after all.

The woman hissed in irritation. "Do you want to die, elf? I'm looking for this girl," she ripped a piece of paper out from her pouch, waved it at the king. "Tell me where she is and we will leave without any bloodshed."

The king examined the paper and saw the teal-haired girl that his daughter had brought into the village. His face tightened. He knew she was trouble. Most likely, he guessed, she, her friends, and his daughter were in the town of Heurst - it was the closest town to the elf settlement, a barren place with people as gray as the stone their houses are built with.

The king's eyes narrowed. It would do some good for his daughter to learn of the true cruelty of humans, for his daughter to realize how terrible humans could truly be. The king would of course arrange for her to be rescued from the prison, but it would be good for her to see her worthless human friends dead - criminals from the looks of them, he never liked that blonde-haired woman or that scarred human with a missing finger. The company the princess keeps was becoming shadier and shadier by the day.

"If you refrain from violence, then I will tell you where they are," said the king, slowly, measured.

"And lift the damn mist too," the woman growled.

Pushy. The king shrugged regally. "If you don't attack. Every elf here is trained in the art of fighting and if you were to make a move against us, well, the results would be terrible for your band of ruffians. We would not like a war, not now."

The woman rolled her eyes. "Yes, yes. Now tell us where she is."

"In the town of Heurst," the king said.

The woman's eyes narrowed. "Heurst...I see. Lift the mist."

The king did so.

"M-Meiko," said the blue-haired man. "We should leave now. His Majesty told us not to use violence unless absolutely necessary."

Meiko growled and sheathed her sword, looking sorely disappointed. "I know that, Kaito. Let's go to Heurst, then. Gods, I'm sick of tracking these kids..." she turned and left the room, leaving the king there alone, wondering whether he did the right thing, before dismissing his fears.

Of course he did. Yukari needs to be taught a lesson about the true nature of humanity. It was a tough one, to be sure, but one that is necessary. That in mind, the king retired to his meditations once more.


	16. Chapter 16

Luka stroked Miku's back in an effort to comfort her as the girl sobbed. Her heart ached at the sound of Miku's crying, and Luka wished that she could help somehow, make it stop, but no matter what she said, Miku kept crying.

"H-hey..." Luka stammered as she hugged Miku, "it's okay...I'm here..."

"Y-you idiot," Miku sobbed, "wh-why'd you have to risk yourself like that again? I was so worried..."

Luka smiled, a little. "Well, I said I'll protect you, right?" she put her hand on Miku's shoulders and gently pushed the girl back a little, so that Luka could see her face. She drew one hand to Miku's cheek and wiped off a tear. "Don't cry, Miku. I'm okay."

Miku bit her lip, brow furrowed in worry. She did not look convinced in the least, and her unsure, frightened expression was so heart-wrenching Luka found that she was frantically trying to reassure her that she was fine. Miku said nothing during it all, her expression only becoming graver and graver until she looked up at Luka once more.

"Promise me you won't risk yourself like that again," she said.

Luka smiled at her. "Miku, I can't promise that. I have to protect you-"

"You don't _have _to protect me!" Miku looked immensely frustrated and her eyes glared up at Luka. "I...I said I want to protect you too, didn't I? So...so you have to consider yourself, too. I want you to take care of yourself more. Don't push yourself so much, Luka."

Luka looked at Miku, who looked so immensely serious that Luka felt a sting of sadness. Maybe Miku was right. Maybe Luka should relax a little and let Miku take care of her too. She was certainly capable of it...Luka took a deep breath and smiled at Miku again, a softer one this time. "Okay, Miku. I won't." She leaned forward, hesitantly, and brushed her lips over Miku's. "Don't worry, okay?"

Miku was trembling under Luka's lips and when Luka drew away, or tried to, Miku leaned forward, kissed Luka again. "Okay," she whispered, her lips moving against Luka's as she did so. She was still shaking, as though she had a chill, and Luka wrapped her arms around her and hugged her close to her, tried to still the shivers Miku had.

"I love you," said Luka, softly, "so I don't want to make you worry so much. I'm sorry, Miku."

Miku said nothing, but she pulled her head back a little to kiss Luka again, her kiss passionate, almost desperate even. Luka, taken aback, tried to respond as best she could to Miku's pleadingly caressing lips. As Miku moved to deepen it, there was a rapping at the door.

Luka immediately pulled back, as well as Miku. The two of them exchanged glances and unspoken they both agreed that it would be best if they feigned sleep. Luka immediately closed her eyes, felt Miku shift a little, settle in bed next to her. There was some hesitation, and then the door opened.

"Eh, they're still asleep?" Lily's voice. Luka smelled the smell of fresh-baked pastries and her mouth watered despite herself.

"Looks like it..." Yukari said. Luka heard the light sound of Yukari moving, heard the sound of food being put on a table. "Well, we can eat first then."

"Mm," Lily said. "Yukari...you haven't given me an answer yet."

Yukari's voice became noticeably tighter. "What?" she laughed, nervously. "What are you talking about, Lily?" there was the sound of paper crinkling. "Here's your pastry."

"Ah, thanks," said the engineer, shortly. "And I mean my question about...what you'll do now. Are you sure you want to stay with us? Don't you want to stay with your father? You're the princess, aren't you?"

There was silence for a while, broken only by the sound of quiet chewing. Then. Yukari finally answered. "I...I want to travel with you all. The elves, my father, they're so afraid of the outside. They just can't see...they aren't _willing _to see how humans really are. I think that maybe if I travel with you three enough, they'll see that humans aren't all bad. I've...I have been wanting to expand, to open our borders, like the Silvani did..."

Luka felt Miku stiffen on the bed at the mention of the elves that lived in the Tower, and, still feigning sleep, Luka shifted in bed so that she was hugging Miku, trying to give some measure of reassurance.

"The Silvani...city elves, right?" Lily bit into her pastry again. "A lot of them lived in the Tower..."

"Yes," said Yukari.

Lily yawned. "Do you think we should wake those two up now?"

"No," said Yukari. "Luka needs rest. And Miku...well, it just looks like Miku needs to be close to her."

"Like a flower to the sun," said Lily, dryly. "A little childish, I'll say."

"I think it's romantic," Yukari sounded a little affronted.

"Maybe," said Lily. "Never been much for analyzing other people's relationships."

Luka decided that she had about enough of eavesdropping, and so she stirred a little more and with a grunt sat up on the bed, rubbing her eyes.

"Hey guys," said Luka, sleepily rubbing her eye. "Are those pastries I smell?"

"Hey Luka!" Yukari said, smiling brightly at her. The elf was seated at a small round table, and after taking a muffin from the basket she trotted over to Luka and handed her it. It was still warm in her hands, and Luka smiled contently before taking a large bite of it, closing her eyes in bliss as she savored the fresh-baked deliciousness.

"Thanks, Yukari, Lily," said Luka, grinning at the two of them as she ate. "This is really good!"

Miku blinked her eyes open and turned to Luka. Luka looked down at her and smiled. "Hey Miku! Yukari and Lily bought pastries."

Miku got up, her hair a little mussed from lying on the bed. "Pastries sound good."

"Alright, coming right up!" Yukari was bubbly and cheerful, sounding completely unlike the serious princess Luka had eavesdropped on earlier. Luka looked curiously at her, wondering, for the first time, what exactly was going on in Yukari's head. After a little Yukari handed an apple turnover to Miku that Miku inspected curiously for a few minutes before eating.

Lily stretched. "Well, as you all should know, we can't stay here long. Most likely the king's dogs are after us."

Luka scowled as she ate her pastry. "I don't see why they have to keep following us! I mean...what'd Miku do?"

Lily sighed. "I don't know, Luka. Still, I'm not all that keen on running from town to town for the rest of my life," her blue eyes were weary. "Our money's getting lower and lower, too."

Miku looked down at her apple turnover. "I just wish we could stay somewhere and not have to worry about running anymore."

Lily smiled, wryly. "We all do."

-o-o-o-

Meiko was seething.

It never took her this long to capture a target. But then again, she had always worked alone. With Kaito tagging along, she had to make accommodations for him, and the man (no, Meiko corrected in her head, more like _boy_) was obviously inexperienced when it comes to the subtle art of tracking. Meiko was a hunter, the four girls were her prey, and Kaito, well, Kaito was like a wide-eyed ten year old.

Still, Meiko thought, they were close now. Meiko ordered curtly the survivors of the elves' forest to surround the Cock and Bull inn at Heurst before she and Kaito swept inside. Meiko quickly cast her eyes around, checking for the Harbinger or any of her four friends, but it was unlikely that they would be sitting at a bar getting drunk with the people who frequented the inn. Kaito was talking in quiet low tones with the innkeeper, showing him the etching of the Harbinger. A few minutes later, Kaito came up to Meiko with a triumphant look on his face.

"They're in the third room on the left," he said, smiling at her, as though he expected her to praise him or something.

Meiko only nodded and quickly climbed the stairs, Kaito and two men from the battalion following her. At the third door on the left, she didn't bother knocking. She ordered the men to break the door down.

Crashing inside Meiko saw the four of them, all gathered in one place, nice and ready for capture. Meiko's eyes narrowed. The Harbinger's face was deathly pale at the sight of them - she was sitting up in bed. Meiko quickly looked for the street rat they captured, and found her next to the Harbinger, like a loyal dog. Standing next to the window, looking slightly baffled, was the elf princess, and that blonde engineer was sitting at the table.

"Okay," said Meiko, tonelessly. "You four are all captured. Don't try to pull that stunt you did last time. The inn is surrounded with soldiers."

The street rat glared at Meiko, her blue eyes defiant. It took only a few short weeks for her to bounce back from two months of torture, it seemed. Meiko's eyes narrowed at that. Apparently she didn't do a good enough job of it.

"I'm not letting you touch them!" the scarred girl yelled, arms spread in a useless gesture of protection.

Meiko rolled her eyes and allowed herself a smirk. "As if you could do anything to stop us. Like that panned out so well last time."

"Shut up!" the street rat had her blade out in a flash and was charging towards Meiko. Meiko noted this, stored this away in her head - the girl was easier to rouse to protective anger now - and spotted a million weak points she could use to break the kid's defense. She was a little better at swordfighting now, Meiko admitted, but still far from being a match for Meiko.

Meiko easily knocked the sword out of the girl's hand. The girl went careening past her, blue eye wide as the blade flew out of her grip, and practically fell into Kaito's arms. To his credit, Kaito quickly dispatched her by knocking her out with a quickly muttered magic spell. The girl slumped to the floor.

"Ah," the Harbinger uttered, finally, her blue eyes wide with shock and horror before rapidly transitioning to anger. "You...you..."

"Capture them," Meiko interrupted, and the men moved in.

-o-o-o-

Miku woke up on cold stone floor. Around her, she heard groaning as her companions roused themselves awake.

"Ugh...what happened..." Luka muttered, woozily.

Miku sat up and winced as her vision spun. She placed cool fingers against her forehead and looked around. Lily was lying on the floor, eyes open with a frown creasing her face, and Yukari was sitting against the wall, eyes wide and ears agitatedly flicking.

"We've been captured," Yukari whispered, or more accurately, whimpered. She hugged her knees tight to herself and put her face down. "Are we...are we going to get tortured?"

"I won't let that happen," said Luka, though her voice was more than a little dejected now, giving her words no power. She looked down at her hands and clenched them into sad, angry fists. "I...I won't."

Miku remembered the torture chamber that they found Luka in, and shuddered. The thought of everyone being subjected to those tortures was too much, too frightening. Miku buried her face in her hands.

"I don't think they'll be torturing us," said Lily, still lying on the floor. "What would be the point? It accomplishes nothing. We have nothing to confess because we don't know anything. The king would know more than us."

"But, but then why would they throw us into this place?" Yukari asked.

"Who knows..." Lily sighed.

Miku swallowed, hard. Her hands were shaking and she felt as though she was about to get sick. Her eyes sought Luka's, and Luka gave Miku a small smile - trying to be reassuring. Miku bit her lip and looked down.

The four of them waited for what seemed like hours in that cramped room, until the sound of boots tapping on stone floor signaled the arrival of some guard. Miku didn't bother looking up until she heard the cell door unlock, heard the creak as it swung on hinges that sounded as though they had never been oiled. Meiko stood there, her contemptuous brown eyes visible in the gloom of the dungeon.

"The king wants to see you all now," she said, and she walked over to each of them, unlocked their shackles. Luka immediately sprang up, her hand leaping to her side, but there was no sword there. Meiko watched her actions with some amusement.

"Did you really think we'd leave you four with your weapons?" Meiko asked, face set in a sneer. "Now, follow me."

Seeing no other choice but to obey, Miku and her companions slunk out of their cell, following Meiko. They climbed endless stone steps until they reached a plain wooden door that Meiko knocked twice upon. It swung open, a suspicious-faced guard opening it, giving the four of them a baleful eye. As Miku walked she couldn't help but to notice how the attendants of the castle jumped at the sight of them, some of them going so far as to cross themselves as though they were in the presence of some great evil. Miku's eyes narrowed in suspicion, but they walked on. Soon their shoes no longer hit stone, but rich, luxurious carpet. The castle seemed to open up, to grow grander as the four of them walked. Tapestries hung on the walls, depicting heroic battles or woodland scenes, and the arched ceiling loomed over them.

Meiko eventually took the four to a large room, the largest room Miku had seen in the Lower World by far - a vast throne room with a red rug leading up steps to a heavy-looking and grand gold throne, intricate designs engraved on it. Sitting on it was an old, withered-looking man wearing a grand crown that seemed capable of crushing his head. He was dressed in fine clothes, liver spots dotted his head, and his hands were arthritic claws on the throne.

Meiko introduced him, briefly, as the king - Tonio Kagamine the Second.

Standing next to the king was a much younger looking man, with unruly blond hair and deep blue eyes. He was dressed in similarly fine clothes, though his were much more battle ready, plated, and his hand rested uneasily on the hilt of his longsword.

Meiko introduced him as the prince, Len Kagamine the First, before leaving the four there. The door slammed loudly behind Miku, echoing in the stone walls.

There was nothing but silence for a long while, Miku staring uneasily at the lowborn king. Now that she was standing before him, Miku couldn't quite find it in her heart to hate him - he looked so weak, like the wind could blow him away. The Crypton king, she thought, was so much younger and less weak-looking. But despite that...the lowborn king was the one who killed the Crypton king. Indirectly, to be sure, but still.

"Why did you call us here?" Luka demanded, breaking the silence. Taking a step forward she glared at the king. "Why'd you put us through all that?"

The king looked at her for a while and sighed. "Are you truly unaware of the danger that you have been protecting for all this time?"

Luka scowled. "Well, Miku might have some...some powers, but she's not evil! I don't see why you have to make her suffer so much!"

The prince stepped forward, face contorted in anger. "You idiots! Father, there is no need to talk with them any longer. The Harbinger has them within their thrall."

Lily stiffened, eyes widening. "The Harbinger? You...you're kidding," she laughed. "The Harbinger's nothing but a fairy tale cooked up to make us scared. There's no way you all believe this."

"Miku can't be the Harbinger!" Luka yelled. "What makes you think she is? The Harbinger won't be coming for ages and ages!"

Miku's head was spinning. She was the Harbinger? That can't possibly be true. The Harbinger was the great key to rebirth that everyone in the Tower worshipped. For Miku to be the Harbinger, that was just ridiculous. She couldn't even conceive of it - it was too big a concept to wrap her mind around.

"Your majesty," said Yukari, quietly, respectfully. "What makes you believe that Miku is the Harbinger?"

Len answered for the king. "It has been said, in the prophecies, that the Harbinger shall be born on the day when the earth shakes on a full moon, when Jupiter is aligned with Saturn, while Mars passed them in its orbit. The Harbinger would be born in a vast tower that pierced the sky itself, and would not awaken until the time comes. We believe that the time is perilously close at hand."

"Indeed," said the king, his voice whisper-thin. "The signs have been everywhere - earthquakes, famine spreading from country to country, locusts descending on crops, thunder and lightning with no rain."

"That's hardly conclusive evidence to accuse Miku of being the Harbinger," Lily said. "That's nothing but a load of superstitious claptrap."

Miku laughed, weakly. "I...I'm not the Harbinger. I can't be. The Harbinger brings about the rebirth of the world, I can't do that! I don't know how. I have nothing that would indicate that I'm-"

Len's eyes narrowed. "So you call the power in you that awakens in great danger _nothing?"_

"We believe you are the Harbinger," said the king. "You have demonstrated time and time again an unusual ability to survive. Whenever you are placed in danger...you always escape. Your power is awakening, more and more now. And when it awakens fully...the world as we know it will be destroyed." The king's eyes narrowed to cold slits of icy blue. "We cannot allow that to happen. As king of Elphegort, I have a duty to protect the country. I will not let us fall. We will defeat the end of the world."

-o-o-o-

Luka's mind didn't seem to work at the moment. Everything she thought she knew about Miku was thrown into doubt. Miku, the Harbinger? How could that be? The Harbinger was some great mythic beast, right? Not...not _Miku_. Not the girl from the Crypton Tower - the girl Luka loved. Not the girl who accidentally stole an apple, who broke into Bruno Giuseppe's house, the girl who refused to wash in the river, the girl who was brave under all the pressure and all the chases, the girl who saved Luka from the torture chamber, the girl who was so timid and unsure when she confessed to Luka for the first time. How could...how could Miku possibly be the Harbinger?

The king was lying - he had to be. Luka glared at him. "Miku's not the Harbinger! She can't be! You're insane!"

The king only smiled, softly. "We wish. But no. She is the Harbinger. The signs cannot be ignored."

"Haven't you all wondered about her? About her powers?" Len addressed the four. "Why we have spent so long, chasing her, trying to capture her? We did not want to panic the public, so we kept it secret, but the signs, the prophecy, everything is coming true. Despite all your journeys, all your dangers...the Harbinger had never been hurt, had she not?"

Luka couldn't believe it, even though Len's words were driving a wedge in her brain. It was true, after all, Miku had never been really, seriously hurt, not really. The vines, back then, they had crawled over Yukari and Lily and Luka, but they didn't touch Miku, but no, that was just coincidence, wasn't it? "That's...that's a lie..."

"Please," said the king. "Open your eyes to the truth. What could that awesome power of her be, if not the power of the Harbinger? No one has ever had so much power flowing through his or her veins."

Luka scowled. "Well...even if Miku's the Harbinger...Miku's still Miku. She...she doesn't deserve to...to have anything bad happen to her."

The king shook his head. "We wonder if you would be saying those same words, if the world was ending before your eyes." The king scratched his ear, suddenly looking very weary. "Your friend is the Harbinger."

"Even if she is!" Luka shouted. "I...I don't care! Miku's...Miku's Miku!"

She was about to say more, but then her blood froze. She heard the sound of arrows being drawn back on taut bowstrings, her ears acute after her years of thievery. Her eyes searched the room and saw, on the upper balcony of the room, three concealed archers slowly drawing their bowstrings, pointing the arrow at Miku.

Luka's breath hitched in her throat. Miku was completely unaware of this, and judging from Lily and Yukari's expressions, so were they.

It suddenly hit Luka that all of this was serious - deadly serious. The king meant every word. So did Len. Their long journey for survival...to end like this? It can't...it can't end this way. Luka remembered Miku, how naive she was at the beginning, yet how Luka couldn't leave her regardless. Something in her drew her to the girl...to the Harbinger. Luka remembered Miku's smile, her laughs, her kisses, and she swallowed, hard.

She swore to protect her. Even though Miku told her to take it easy...Luka still swore to protect her. So she had to protect her from this. Time seemed to slow down as Luka ran over to Miku, as Luka threw herself in front of the girl, grabbing her by the collar and throwing her out of the way, just as the arrows were released.

The pain that burst in Luka as the arrows buried themselves thirstily in her heart, in her leg, in her back, was incredible. Time seemed to speed back to normal as Luka thudded to the ground.

"L-Luka!" Yukari screamed, but already her scream seemed a long, long way away. Lily was yelling something too, but Luka couldn't really hear her. She felt Miku hold her and Luka blinked blearily up at Miku's face, frozen with shock and horror.

"Hey..." Luka said, softly. "Don't look like that."

Miku's face crumpled with grief. She was saying something but Luka couldn't hear. Everything suddenly seemed so warm. Darkness claimed her vision. Luka felt weak, and the pain from the arrows dulled. There had been something on those arrows, she was sure. Poison. Poisoned arrows.

Luka weakly smiled up at Miku, gathering her rapidly draining strength. "I said I'd protect you, didn't I?"

"No..." Miku's mouth formed. She was shaking her head back and forth. Time seemed to slow down again. "No!"

"I love you," Luka whispered, regret filling her heart. She should've...should've spent more time with Miku. Should've done more with her. But the times they shared, Luka thought, were sweet in her memory. She hoped Miku would see it the same way - would look back on it, on the memories, so that they would warm her heart. Harbinger or no...Miku was still Miku, and Luka loved her the same.

That thought on her mind, the darkness claimed Luka for its own, closing her eyes forever.

* * *

We're almost at the end now! One or maybe two more chapters!


	17. Chapter 17

Miku cried.

It seemed to be the only thing she could do at the moment. Her mind couldn't deal with this, refused to accept the evidence lying before her eyes. Luka was...Luka was dead. But that can't be. Luka had always been there for her, ever since Miku came down to the Lower World. To have her dead was unbearable. Miku felt as though she had suddenly been set adrift, as though Luka's death was a snip on the tenacious string that kept her grounded in the world.

"Luka," Miku sobbed, buried her head on Luka's chest, stroked her still-warm cheek. "Luka, don't...don't die...you promised..."

No matter what she said, Luka didn't move. Her eyes were still closed and Miku knew with terrible certainty that it would stay that way forever. Weakly she traced Luka's scars, kissed them as though blessing them, her teardrops landing on Luka's face as she hugged Luka's body to herself. Her heart hurt - it hurt, everything hurt, Luka was gone and Miku couldn't do a thing about it. Even though people say she's the Harbinger she couldn't even save the one she loved from death. Luka was too brave, too selfless for her own good. Miku's dreams of living a peaceful, happy life with Luka were falling, crumbling before her eyes, crumbling into nothingness.

"I knew it," Len said quietly, turning to the king. "The Harbinger uses whatever it has at its disposal to keep itself alive."

The king shook his head, wearily. "How heartless of it."

Miku could hardly believe what the king and Len was saying. She glared up at them. "I...I would _never _use Luka to..."

"Really?" said Len. "Are you not aware of what the Harbinger is capable of? Not only can it change the world, it can change fate itself. We believe that when you were born, you unconsciously fated yourself to live. Faced with death, your ability would make others sacrifice themselves for you, or would make your power erupt in times when even that fails."

"So why bring us here?" Lily yelled. "If it's pointless to try to kill Miku, why did you...why did you bring us here? Why did you keep following us around?"

Len's eyes narrowed. "We had to try. We had to try to save the world. Meiko."

Meiko jumped down from the upper balcony, nimbly landing on the carpeted ground next to Len. "Yes, your majesty."

Miku stared at Meiko. For her to have been on the upper balcony, she must have allowed the archers to shoot, must have...

"You killed Luka!" Miku said as she gently set Luka's body back on the ground.

Meiko shrugged. "Well, the street rat was going to die sometime anyways. Did you honestly think that she was capable of protecting anybody? Sooner or later she was going to die."

Miku growled. "Luka protected me."

"You can't...what are you going to do to us now?" Yukari asked, eyes wide.

"Shit...we're completely unarmed, completely defenseless," Lily cursed. "What do we..."

"Kill them," said Len. "Make sure that no one is left standing. Focus on the Harbinger."

Meiko smiled thinly. "My pleasure."

At that she instantly sprung into motion, heading towards Miku, her savage-looking longsword already drawn and in her hand. Miku dodged and saw to her horror that Lily and Yukari were being attacked by armed men.

"Lily! Yukari!" Miku screamed, running over to them.

Lily was dodging as best she could as Yukari used magic to ward the soldiers away. Her fireballs took out a few of the soldiers, but there were simply too many. Yukari couldn't keep up this for long. Miku dodged as Meiko took yet another swipe at her with her sword. Her heart was pounding, and there was something deep within her that was knocking at the door to her consciousness, more and more frequently. Miku stared at the soldiers and her friends. She had to save them. Luka wouldn't have died in vain, Miku would save Lily and Yukari, save everyone. Everyone made so many sacrifices for her, for _her_, and Miku couldn't do a thing to help them or to stop them. Her throat closed up as she thought of Luka's dead body again, the grief overwhelming. All she wanted to do was crumple to the ground and sob, but she couldn't do that now. There would be a time for grief later.

Now they had to survive so that Luka wouldn't have died for nothing. Miku reached into herself for the wellspring of magic in her, remembered spells, but now that spring of magic in her was much, much greater - it seemed, scarily, infinite. Miku reached out a hand and, to her surprise, she could _feel _the force and magic in her fingertips. Catching up to the soldiers, Miku punched one of them, the magic in her gleefully aiding that end.

The soldier exploded in a mass of blood and gore, covering Miku with viscera. Miku, wide-eyed, could only stare at her fist. She did that? How? She didn't...she wasn't super strong or anything, how could she have killed a soldier with one punch? How could one punch have penetrated through metal armor and muscle and bone?

"Ah..." Yukari said, her eyes wide, but Lily didn't stop to dwell on the soldier's death. She only grabbed Yukari and made for safer areas in the throne room after shouting some encouragement at Miku.

Miku hardly needed it - the power flowing through her veins was a scarily addictive feeling. She looked at the other soldiers, who stared uneasily back at her, some backing away after seeing the death of their comrade.

"Now you die," said Miku, pointing a finger at one soldier, face obscured by a heavy black helmet. The force exploded from her fingertip and the next thing she knew the soldier was dead, had a finger-shaped hole punched through him.

Miku then easily waved her arm and the force hit the other soldiers as they died in waves. The knocking against her consciousness grew louder, more insistent. Miku turned towards Meiko, whose face was pale but who still held her sword up, who was still glaring at Miku.

Miku regarded her curiously. "Why don't you run? You're just an assassin, aren't you?"

Meiko scowled. "I am no assassin. I'm a hunter. Assassins have targets. Hunters have prey. I never run from battles."

Miku's eyes narrowed. "Is that so…?"

Meiko only ran at her with the sword, and taken aback, Miku gasped in pain as the blade howled through the air, cut a gash on her arm. Staggering, Miku clutched her right arm, the pain shooting up her body.

"If it can be hurt, it can be killed," said Len, and Miku heard the young prince unsheathing his sword as he walked towards her.

Miku scowled and shot a small bolt of force towards Len. The next thing she heard was Len's body falling towards the ground, dead.

Meiko hardly spared the body of the prince a glance as she slashed at Miku again. Miku dodged it and grabbed her blade as it swung through the air. Focusing her force on it, she broke it.

The snap echoed in the vast throne room. Meiko stared at her broken blade, looking, for the first time, scared and unsure.

"My sword," she stammered. "Vengeance."

Miku glanced down at the broken part of the sword, read the word 'vengeance' printed on it in fine, red print. She smirked, picked it up. "Some old, great artifact given to you by your grandfather?"

"No," Meiko spat. "I stole this blade. Drives one to insanity, it does."

Miku looked at the broken blade with much more caution than she did before. "In...sanity?"

"Yes," said Meiko. She spread her arms, dropped the broken sword. "Kill me." She looked weary, defeated. "Vengeance has abandoned me."

Miku looked at Meiko curiously. This woman, she thought, must have had a very interesting past, to turn her into this. However, she remembered all the evils Meiko had done to Luka, and her heart hardened. She would make Meiko suffer.

"No," said Miku, a slow, evil smirk creeping up her face. "I may not have metal, but...I can take out your eyes, can't I? What you did to Luka, you'll feel ten times worse from me."

Lashing out with her foot she kicked Meiko to the ground, and the woman landed heavily next to Len's severed head. Miku slowly advanced towards her, the broken tip of Vengeance poised over Meiko's left eye. "I think I'll take out this one first-"

"Miku, no!" Yukari screamed, and jolted Miku stared up at Yukari, who was near the back of the room with Lily. "Don't torture her!"

"What?" Miku stammered. "Why not? She...she tortured Luka! She killed her! She deserves to suffer!"

"If you torture her," said Yukari, softly, "you'll be no better than her."

Miku stared at Meiko, whose brown eyes were expressionless. A large part of her wanted to make the woman suffer, wanted to punish her for hurting Luka so much, and killing her, but Yukari's words stuck in her mind. Growling, Miku stuck the blade in Meiko's chest, felt Meiko jolt a little before the blood seeped out from her, before she went limp.

Then, Miku got up and slowly walked over to the king, who had been sitting on the throne during all this.

"It looks like you failed," said Miku, flatly, to the king.

The king buried his head in his hands, shaking it. "It's no use...none of it...it's coming..."

"What?" said Miku.

"The end of the world," the king moaned. "The awakening. All of it, everything for naught..."

Miku opened her mouth to say more, but then the knocking broke through her consciousness. All of the powers hidden from her were revealed. She could see the threads of fate of everyone in the room, could perceive the order of everything, could touch the souls of others, could shape the world to her own desires.

The earth began to shake under their feet, and the sky split open to rain fire.

"What's happening?" Lily stammered, looking out the window as she protectively held Yukari close to her.

Yukari was only staring out the window, numbly. "The _Kalavikar_," she whispered.

Miku put her hands to her aching head as it struggled to take in all this new information. Her senses were in overload now. Miku could hear the shuffling of an insect miles away. Her mind expanded, her knowledge did too as all the sleeping Harbinger awakened. She was barely aware of when she began to scream, and everything around her dissolved into blackness.

When the Harbinger awoke, she found that she could see the world, and it was reborn in hails of scorching fire.

-o-o-o-

-o-o-o-

-o-o-o-

**epilogue**

The reborn world was strange and hectic, and throughout it, the Harbinger lived many lives, though she would not remember much with each successive one.

The first rebirth was in a cave, where years screamed by, measured in blinks and kills, the steady rhythm of hunting and gathering. The Harbinger remembered everything, but no matter how hard she looked, or how far their ragged tribe wandered, she found nothing.

The second rebirth was a millenium later, to the Harbinger's displeasure. She had overshot the mark, that time. Born as royalty, the Harbinger went for the slums in some remembered memory, but she saw no flashes of pink hair, and the forests were populated by a strange and wild people, hostile to this foreign princess. The Harbinger searched their eyes, but none of them had the purple ones she was looking for. Of the court lords and ladies, many were blonde haired and blue eyed, but none of them were what the Harbinger was seeking as well.

Each cycle, the primitive memories grew less and less, fainter and more indistinct. They were miniscule changes, but they added up over time.

In the two hundredth and seventy-third cycle, the Harbinger barely remembered anything at all, save for a dream-memory, a vision of a girl, dancing behind her eyes when she shut them. She dreamed of a girl with pink hair and an infectious smile, and slept uneasily.

She went to school, then university. She made friends with a talented mechanical engineer there named Lily, who, in turn, was best friends with an eager botanist named Yukari. The three of them were a strange group, but they were good friends. It felt as though they had been friends forever.

After graduation, she lived in a small house on the outskirts of the city. By day, she worked, and by night, she tended the garden Yukari had enthusiastically helped her plant, with the inventions that Lily created. She wasn't too sure about what was what, but Yukari had lent her a book and she was beginning to learn the names and meanings of flowers. She lived a quiet and content life, occasionally going out with her friends. In restaurants, she would sit and people-watch.

Lily would always comment that it would seem as though she was looking for someone, and she would laugh, because she wasn't looking for anyone in particular, all she was was just looking, but at the same time, wasn't she looking for someone? Wasn't there someone she wanted to find?

She couldn't remember, and she wasn't very sure.

After eating, they would go out to shop, or karaoke. They were all, by some twist of fate, good singers, and would sometimes joke amongst themselves that they should become a singing group. Sometimes, they would go out to bars and Lily would be amazingly popular, as always.

Whenever she went back home on those nights, she would dream restlessly, but upon waking, would remember nothing save for snatches - a laugh, maybe, or a smile. One time, she woke up remembering nothing save an apple.

It was on a day like any other, an off day, and she was in the garden, peering at her plants while munching on an apple. There was a particular gomphrena that was slow to grow, and she examined it with a frown. It puzzled her as to why; the conditions were, after all, perfect.

While she was thinking, the doorbell sounded. She walked over to the door, and opened it. Standing before her was a girl with pink hair and an infectious smile, dressed casually in a shirt, cap, and jeans, probably the uniform of a delivery service, for she was holding a packet in her hands.

Miku stared. There was an insistent knocking in her mind. For some reason, she couldn't breathe. Her eyes were fixed on the small label pinned on the girl's shirt, a simple nametag that read 'Luka Megurine'.

"Hey," said the girl - Luka - with a grin, easy and wide. "Are you Miku Hatsune? I'm here to deliver your seeds."

Behind Miku, the gomphrena began to bloom, but Miku didn't see, because all she saw was Luka. Her heart was beating fast, fast, fast. The apple she had been eating slipped from her hand, fell to the floor, rolled towards Luka's feet. Luka blinked and looked down at it before picking it up. She smiled at Miku and handed the apple to her.

"You okay?" Luka asked with a small laugh, and why did everything about her seem so familiar? Miku took the apple, shaking. Something about this girl...something about Luka...deep in her heart, Miku knew she couldn't just take the seeds and let her go.

Her heart felt as though it was brimming over, and she took a steadying breath before she spoke. "Would you like to come in for a bit?

There was a small eternity as Luka checked her watch, looked at her bike, and looked back at Miku. "Well, you're my last delivery, so sure." She smiled, heartbreakingly familiar. "Why not?"

_End_

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It's...it's over! Thank you so so much for all the reviews everyone! m(_)m I hope to see you all again soon ^^_  
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